Changed
by Layla99
Summary: Sakura's different. First she was cold, now she's just too perfect. I've just changed, is her explanation, but the truth's more then that. What secret is she hiding from her friends? How and when did she become so powerful? War? Akatsuki? Vampires? ItaSak
1. Chapter 1

Changed

Not a crossover

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Twilight, or Vampire Knight.

**A/N: The reason I put a disclaimer for Twilight and Vampire Knight is because I got some ideas from them.**  


**Inner Sakura**

_Outer Sakura thinking, or someone else thinking_

I

The Change

Panting, she ran…away from them. She knew it was a lost cause, yet she couldn't help trying. Trying to live, trying to survive. It was instinct that drove her on, instinct and the fear they drove into her, into a mad frenzy to escape.

Taking a chance, Sakura dove head first into a lake, hoping to lose them. She cursed as she heard two splashes behind her. Sakura cursed again when the bubbles that were formed from the impact of their splashes blinded her sight. Picking a random direction she frantically swam. When air became a problem she had to waste precious time to jump up out of the water to breath. Using her chakra, she landed on the surface of the lake and headed off in the direction where she hoped Konoha was in. She knew without a doubt that they would dodge, _but what the hell_, she thought as she threw four shruikens behind her without even bothering to look.

As her strength started to fade, and her breath came in gasps Inner Sakura decided to finally say something. **Oi, don't they ever get tired?**

_They're dead…how can dead people get tired?_

**How can dead people move, huh? **Inner challenged back.

_How should I know, the last time I checked I'm not one of them and I'm definitely not becoming one anytime soon._

Inner, deciding that Outer was a lost cause, didn't even bother answering. Sakura wasn't even sure why she was running; she knew that they were toying with her. If they wanted to, they could have caught and killed her as soon as she started to run, but they seemed to like the thrill of the chase.

She could only wish that she were the hunter. The hunter, Sakura almost laughed at the idea of a konochi like her, an ANBU or not, being the hunter while they were her prey. That was like saying the deer was the hunter while the wolves are the prey. It was just impossible. They were at the top of the food chain while Sakura was; well, simply stated, not. Everything about them was made to hunt people like her. Simply put, they were built to hunt, and kill humans.

While Sakura was amusing her mind with impossible thoughts, her chasers slide underwater and coolly slipped out onto the surface in front of her. Sakura's eyes widened in shock and fear as she skidded to a stop, her feet sinking a few centimeters into the water from the lack of concentration. She found herself gazing helplessly into two pairs of eyes. One was black and empty of emotions, and the other large, wide, childish, and pale yellow-green. The yellow-green eyes glowed with innocence, but ironically, they were the ones that were also filled with blood lust and hunger, while the black ones were dull and just there.

The yellow-green eyes belonged to an angelic looking young boy. He looked so innocent and pure with his slim short build, honey blond locks and heart shaped face with pale flawless skin. Yet, his aura gave Sakura a shiver down her spine. She could just feel the hunger and blood lust that surrounded him.

Sakura gave the emotionless man next to the young boy a desperate glance, but he just shook his head. The black-eyed man was tall and wiry, with dark silver ash colored hair. He looked about twenty years old, extremely handsome with his pale skin and dark aura.

"Kamui-san, please, don't do this" Sakura begged the black-eyed man desperately. A flash of emotion passed across his face, sadness and regret. Sakura knew by just looking at his eyes that like it or not he was helpless, he could not help her. Though the yellow-green eyed boy may have looked younger by about ten years, he was far older and powerful then the older looking man.

"I'm sorry Sakura-san…" Kamui murmured softly.

Sakura realizing that she was cornered with no escape tried one last desperate move. Praying that he'll come to his senses and remember her, she begged, "Suki-san… please remember me…your blinded by your thirst. We're friends, remember?" Sakura trembled in fear, a chill going down her spine when she saw his angelic smile change to a wicked one. "Suki-san...?"

Sakura stared in horror as Suki's eyes changed color. They were now blood red, showing how out of control and thirsty he was. She took in a hoarse, shaky breath and gulped, franticly trying to come up with some ideas to escape.

**Go on; give them a punch full of horribly powerful youth!!!!!**

Outer Sakura sweatdroped as she mumbled, _I'm spending too much time with Lee…_

_What the heck…_ Sakura thought as she started to gather chakra to her legs. With a sudden burst of speed she suddenly charged toward Kamui, the one who was most likely not to hurt her. With the chakra packed fist, she slammed it into the chest of the man. Where a hit like that would leave normal men dead with a hole in their chest, Kamui was just slightly winded, mostly from surprise at her sudden attack.

Using this short period of surprise, Sakura shot off across the water towards land. Her heart was pounding and she was full of fear as she heard Suki calmly say, "Your it Kamui." There was a sudden gust of speed and a faint blur of black as Kamui caught up to her with ease. She had to choke back a terrified scream when he suddenly appeared in front of her.

His eyes were emotionless again, now that he was actually following a direct order. Kamui coldly raised a fist and lightly slammed it into her stomach. Sakura choked and coughed up a few drops of blood as her petite body went flying back. Her body cleared the lake in record time and slammed into a large boulder. The momentum of the punch however broke the boulder and slammed her into a tree. The large tree seemed to groan in pain and threatened to collapse.

Slowly, Sakura cracked an eye open and winced as a wave of pain shot up her body. She was having a bit of hard time breathing for Kamui was already at her battered form, holding her up against the tree by her neck with one large hand. She quickly assessed herself and realized, with a small mental groan, that most of her ribs were broken.

Kamui's head was slightly turned to the side, so he wouldn't have to look into her pleading eyes. Sakura heard light footsteps coming towards them, and realized that it was most likely Suki's. As Kamui's hand slid off her neck and fell limply to his side, Sakura found herself unable in her current position to keep herself up. As she slid down to the base of the tree, she flinched and bit her tongue to keep the moan of pain from slipping from her lips. And she sat there, panting weakly, while glaring mournfully at the ground. As she bore holes into the forest floor, she saw a pair of small yellow boots come and stand in front of her pitiful form. Slowly, with some effort, she was able to lift her head enough to see the face of the owner.

"Suki…please…"

Inner Sakura was shivering in a corner of her mind whimpering things like, **I'm to young to die…I probably don't taste very good, you know to skinny…**

Unable to keep her head up anymore, she slowly let her head drop down. Suki just stood there with his innocent gaze on Sakura. Then he slowly crouched down, and taking one of his small, soft, pale hands, he lightly grasped her chin and raised her head to gaze into his eyes.

"Prey-chan, what's wrong? Prey-chan should be happy that a Suki wants Prey-chan…" Suki chirped in a small, happy childish voice.

Sakura's answer was cut off when Suki slowly lowered his head and softly brushed his lips over her pale neck. He gently, but forcefully turned her head so he could get better access to her throat, and happily took in her scent as Sakura trembled in fright. Then he suddenly opened his mouth and quickly bit into her neck drawing blood.

Sakura struggled at first, but it was pointless, considering that the venom in Suki's fangs started to take affect. "Suki-san…please stop, please," Sakura moaned weakly as the venom started to send horrible pain throughout her body. As the blood was drained from her body, she found her vision getting dizzy. With amazing effort, she managed to lift her arms high enough to pound weakly on his back.

As Suki's blood lust slowly got sated he started to calm down. Suddenly, coming to his senses, his eyes jerked open from their closed state, and he hurriedly pulled away from her neck. Eyes wide with horror at what he had done, he stared at the limp figure of Sakura lying on the hard forest floor.

"Sakura-chan!!!!!! No!!!!" Suki yelled in horror. "Please be alive, please"

He franticly scrambled to grab her wrist. With shaky hands he desperately felt her pulse._Yes_!!! He thought as he felt a pulse, faint, but a pulse none ever the less. Breathing heavily, Suki raised one hand and impatiently wiped the dripping blood, _her blood_, he thought, from his mouth. Suddenly, Sakura started to jerk in pain; her mouth opened in a silent scream. Then to Suki's horror, she started to scream, a blood-chilling scream of intense pain.

"Please!!! Stop…someone, anyone, please!"

Suki watched her with his mouth agape with a rising sense of horror. "Sakura…I'm so sorry, please forgive me." He begged as tears streamed down his angelic face. Suki knew at once what was happening. She was changing… Three days until her time is up. In three days, she'll become one of them.

He could only wish that the change was less painful, but he knew that was impossible. His eyes widened in surprise when Sakura suddenly stopped her screams of pain, and opened her eyes to gaze into Suki's own yellow-green ones. Her large green eyes bore into him.

"Suki-san, what's happening to me?" She rasped. Her head was ringing in pain, cross that, her whole body was burning, not only her head. Not from heat, but from pain.

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan, I didn't mean to. It was an accident..." Suki was suddenly cut off when Sakura asked again, this time her voice a lot more commanding, "Suki-san, what's happening to me?"

He gave her a pained look, and shared a look with Kamui. Just by seeing their shared glances, Sakura realized at once what was happening. "No! I'm becoming one of you?" She whimpered in horror. Suki just gave her a pained look. His eyes begged for her forgiveness.

Sakura's mind felt numb. She was turning into one of them. She was changing into a bloodsucking, dead thing. Kamui and Suki could only watch as she slowly closed her eyes and give another jerk of pain. They saw, with a heart filled with guilt, a single tear roll down her heart shaped face, and onto the ground where her pale pink hair lay limply.

_I'm turning into a vampire…_

**You can say that again…**

**Author's note: I just want to say that this is my first fanfiction so please go easy on me. Also, the reason I put a disclaimer for Twilight and Vampire Knight is because the vampire facts in this fanfic is based off a combination of the vampires from Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, and the vampires from the manga, Vampire Knight. I didn't tell you earlier because I didn't want to give away that the story has vampires in it... If for some reason you didn't know... Though it is in the summery. Um...I'd also really love it if you would review. I'm dieing for some writer tips. Um...I don't like flames...but if you think they are necessary I'll take them. Thank you!!! **


	2. Chapter 2

II

How It Began

**Recap: Sakura's mind felt numb. She was turning into one of them. She was changing into a bloodsucking, dead thing. Kamui and Suki could only watch as she slowly closed her eyes and give another jerk of pain. They saw, with a heart filled with guilt, a single tear roll down her heart shaped face, and onto the ground where her pale pink hair lay limply. **

_**I'm turning into a vampire…**_

**You can say that again…**

**  
**

As Sakura lay there breathing heavily, she asked herself how unlucky she could get. As another wave of pain flashed through her body, Sakura's eyes widened, and she bit her tongue to keep her scream at bay. Hoarsely, she took in ragged gasps of air as the pain receded slightly, enough for her to deal with at the least. Time seemed to drag on, she found herself counting the minutes, the seconds until the torture on her body would end. Trying to numb the pain, she came to the decision of meditation. Of course, mediation could only do so much; at the least it would stop her from screaming bloody murder.

Sakura gave a weak mental chuckle at her last thought. Bloody murder? Man, the tribe was really rubbing off on her. As she closed her eyes and tried as best as she could to take slow, deep breaths, Sakura found herself having random flashbacks of her life. Memory to memory, it seemed like pictures were flashing past in her mind. Then, the flashbacks seemed to slow as it came to where it all began.

**Author Note:The flash backs going to be really long…sweatdrop… actually…this whole chapters going to be a flashback, sorry…**

**  
**

**Flashback**

**Haruno Sakura**

**Age: 18**

**Rank: ANBU**

**Field Name: Cat**

**Team: #9**

**Specialty: Medical Ninjutsu, Genjutsu Specialist, and Katana Master**

**Bloodline Limit: None**

**Missions: **

**10 D-ranked**

**23 C-ranked **

**9 B-ranked **

**18 A-ranked **

**11 S-ranked **

**Harono Sakura, a pride of Konoha, one of the Konoha 12. It all started with a yearlong S-ranked mission…**

**Sakura was sitting in her apartment fuming about random things in life. Things like why Ino always wore purple, why her hair was pink, why Sai, Naruto and Kakashi left her behind on their self assigned mission to finding Sasuke. How was it possible that Sai, who met Sasuke only once, who didn't even care about him, was allowed to go but ****she**** was left behind? Have you noticed that Sakura left out the sensei in Kakashi's name, and the kun in Sasuke? Yeah, that's how pissed off she was.**

**Sakura was known throughout Konoha, and most of Fire Country, as the second Tsunade. Surpassing her not only in medical skills, but in beauty, strength and smarts as well. Ok. Maybe not ****that**** strong, but she was beautiful, strong and smart. It was also a fact that she surpassed Tsunade in medical skills and matched her, if not surpassed her, in smarts and strength. **

**She was fuming because right after her 18****th**** birthday, her idiotic team left to go fetch Sasuke, leaving her behind. It had been four months since their departure, and many people still remember the horrible yell of anger that exploded from the small, pink haired girl. The yell had rung out all through Konoha, and it even sent shivers down the male members of team seven's backs, who had been far away in Wind Country by then. **

"_**Man, I'm getting a bad vibe…" chuckled Naruto weakly. **_

"_**Ugly's going to kill us isn't she?" asked Sai, a bit too happily for the current situation.**_

"_**Yeah" Kakashi and Naruto agreed at the same time. **_

"**I'm ****so**** going to torture them up when they come back." Sakura hissed.**

**Just then, there was a knock on her door. Grumbling curses that made the messenger Jonin outside her house, sweatdrop and murmur a quick prayer to Kami-sama, Sakura slammed open her door with a bit too much strength…it broke.**

"**Oops…" Sakura said, glaring at the poor Jonin as if it was his entire fault. "Well? What do you need?" she snapped.**

"**Um…S-Sakura-san…Hokage-sama…w-w-wants to see you…about a m-mission." he stuttered. **

"**Kami-sama! Get a hold of yourself! You sound like Hinata in front of Naruto." complained Sakura.**

"**Gomenosai." he whispered meekly.**

"**Tell Hokage-sama I'll be there. As you can see, I'm only wearing a long shirt, so you better leave before I brand you as a pervert." warned Sakura. **

"**H-Hai!" the man stuttered before dashing away beet-red in the face.**

**Grumbling, Sakura walked upstairs to her room to change. She quickly put on her mission outfit. Her outfit was a "remodeled" version of the ANBU uniform. First was a long, tight, black, tank top like, standard muscle shirt. Over it was a tank top/corset styled outer top. It was made from the same white, durable, leather like, material of the original ANBU uniform. The outer part hugged her curves and went down to the middle of her thighs. On the bottom half of her outfit, she wore tight shorts that were the same material and color as her inner black muscle shirt. For shoes, she wore the standard black sandals, except for the fact that it was more like boots because it went up, covering her calves, to right underneath the knees. On her elbows the same white, ANBU material, encased them, being held together by a small silver buckle. Finally, on her back was a katana in a black sheath. **

**Looking at herself in the mirror, Sakura brushed her soft, pink, shoulder length hair off her face. She found herself thinking of how much she had grown, and sighed. With that, jumping out her window, she dashed towards the Hokage Tower. **

**Arriving at her destination, Sakura politely knocked on the door to the Hokaga's office. Receiving a curt, "Come in", Sakura did just that. **

"**Tsunade-sama, you wanted me?" Sakura murmured meekly. Tsunade sighed at her former students antics.**

"**Sakura, stop being so formal with me. I swear! After you became an ANBU you've become more distant from me." Tsunade was now crying anime tears.**

**Sakura sighed and said, "Gomenosai. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"**

**Tsunade's face immediately became grave. "Sakura, what do you know about vampires?" she asked.**

**Sakura blinked in confusion. "I only know that they are mythological creatures that look like beautiful humans, and they drink blood with their fangs."**

**Tsunade chuckled as she replied, "You got the beauty and the blood drinking right, but vampires aren't myths…they are very much real." **

**Sakura thanked her ANBU training. It kept her from making very disturbing faces. She didn't want to believe her, but looking at the Hokage's expression, Sakura knew that Tsunade was being dead serious. **

"**Ah…" was all she said. **

**Blinking blankly Tsunade stared at Sakura, while Sakura stared at Tsunade. "****Well!!**** There you have it! A big secret of life!!!" Tsunade dramatically declared. Still not getting a response, Tsunade sweatdropped and dropped her head in a defeated way, "I'll get on with the mission details" she mumbled dejectedly. **

**After listening to Tsunade's long, long, long, very long, explanation, Sakura went home with a headache. As soon as she walked into her apartment, she immediately started to gather everything that she would need for her mission, into the middle of her living room.**

**As she worked, Sakura made a mental list of all she learned today:**

**Vampires exist...**

**1.They travel the world in small groups called tribes.**

**2.A group of 18 arrived in the outskirts of Fire Country and requested a ninja, for a, cough-tourist-cough, guide.**

**3.The group that was here were "vegetarians", which meant that they didn't drink human blood.**

**4.The group was staying for a year.**

**5.They aren't affected by garlic, pictures of them can be taken, they do have reflections, they can't be killed with a wooden stake, they aren't affected by holy water or the cross, they can't sleep, are very beautiful, grow fangs when they feed, extremely power (Like super speed, strength, sight, smell…etc).**

**6.Eyes turn red when thirsty, and they can lose control if they are extremely thirsty, or if a human is unlucky enough to cross their path when they are hunting.**

**7.Are immortal, don't age, and can only be killed by their own hands.**

**8.Cannot have children, a human can only turn into a vampire if a one bits them and they survive.**

**That was the list of what Sakura learned about the vampire tribe that she would be staying with for a period of a year. Tsunade told her that even though they don't drink human blood, accident happens. So it seemed that Sakura was to stay with the tribe of vampires for their yearlong stay, be their guide, and make sure that mistakes don't happen. **

**Soon, she had everything that she would need piled up in the middle of her living room floor. Unrolling a scroll, that seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere, she calmly sealed all of her necessaries into the scroll, then replaced the scroll back into its original location where every that may be. **

**After checking to see that everything was in order, Sakura walked out of her apartment and locked her door.(A/N I have no idea how she fixed her door...Maybe magic?...) With a sigh, she headed off towards Ino's family flower shop. She grimaced at the thought of meeting Ino, who would definitely try to pry out information about her mission. **

**When she arrived, Sakura coolly pushed the glass door open, causing the small silver bells hanging on the door to tinkle. Ino looked up from reading a medical scroll and blinked in surprise. **

"**Forehead-girl? Your going back on another mission after you just came back two days ago?"**

"**Ah…" Sakura replied.**

"**How long? What's the rank? What's your mission?" Ino asked in a hurried rush. She didn't want Sakura to go so soon. She was worried about her. After Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi left to go find Sasuke, leaving her behind, Sakura had grown more distant, forcing herself to do more and more missions.**

"**A year. S-ranked. Confidential." Sakura replied shortly.**

"**A year!!! That long for a S-ranked mission?!!" Ino cried.**

"**Yeah. So I need the regular." Sakura replied**

**Ino gave Sakura a sad glance before going into the back room to get Sakura "her regular." Whenever Sakura went on a mission, she always came to Ino's flower shop and bought a bouquet of white lilies. After buying the flowers, Sakura always headed towards the cemetery, by herself. Today was no different. When Ino handed Sakura her bouquet of lilies, Sakura gave a small thank you, paid, and walked out of the shop towards the cemetery. **

**When she arrived, she immediately walked down the rows and came to a stop in front of a tomb. Sadly, she placed her flowers in front of the tombstone, and just stood there, gazing at the names written.**

_**Here lies Haruno Yuki, and Haruno Karou wonderful and loving parents. **_

**Sakura gazed mournfully at her parent's graves. They had been both killed by a missing-nin who had a grudge against Sakura. Sakura stilled blamed herself for their death, and regretted going on the mission that had led her away from her parents when they needed her most. With a sad sigh, Sakura headed out of Konoha towards her destination. **

**Even though the mission was an S-ranked, Sakura found no need for herself to wear her ANBU uniform and mask, though she did bring both just in case. Traveling at a steady pace Sakura estimated that if she kept this pace, she would arrive at her destination in two hours. **

**Meeting no trouble, Sakura soon managed to arrive at Tennyo, an interesting name for a village. Taking another glance at her mission scroll, she saw that she was supposed to meet someone at the Northeast gate. When Sakura had asked Tsunade how she was supposed to know whom she was supposed to meet, Tsunade just replied in a rather annoying cryptic way, "**_**You'll know**_**" and cackled like the crazy drunk she was. **

**When she arrived at the Northeast gate, Sakura looked around for anyone that was interesting. No one caught her eye though. Just then, someone behind her asked, "Are you the guide from Konoha?"**

**Sakura spun around pulling out a kunai in the process. She cursed to herself mentally,**_**how was he able to sneak up on me like that?**_** Inner Sakura then decided to make an entrance. **

_**OMG!!!! HE DOESN'T HAVE A CHAKRA SIGNAL!!!! AND HE'S HOT!!!!**_

**Sakura sighed at her inner's behavior, but realized that she was right. The man really didn't have a chakra signal. Then, Sakura realized that he did, but he was concealing it amazingly. **

**The man who stood in front of her was tall, wiry, pale and extremely handsome. His hair was a dark silver ash color, his eyes black and he looked about twenty years old. The aura that surrounded him made Sakura shiver slightly in clear nervousness. **

"**Um…Hai." She answered unsurely. **

**The man nodded his head in acknowledgement and replied, "My name is Kamui. I'm from the tribe and here to guide you to it."**

"**My name is Haruno Sakura, an ANBU of the Leaf." **

"**It's a pleasure meeting you Haruno-san" **

"**As I, as well" Sakura murmured politely. **

**The vampire named Kamui, started to run out of town, into the forest, and Sakura followed. **

**After a few minutes of silent running, they arrived at a large clearing. Sakura blinked in surprise at what she saw. Right smack in the middle the clearing, in the middle of a forest, was a large, old mansion. **

**Kamui, seeing Sakura's puzzled look explained that the mansion used to be the home of a rich man, but he died and left all his fortune, including the mansion, to his favorite niece, who was a vampire. The niece didn't live in the mansion so she let groups of wandering tribes live in it for periods of time. **

**Kamui also explain that he was the youngest out of all the vampires, but probably the most controlled in not drinking human blood because he never tasted human blood in his whole vampire life, which was saying something. Most of the vampires in the tribe drank human blood, but grew depressed about it, so they quite.**

**Just then a small boy of about ten came running over. He was so angelic, so beautiful that Sakura felt her heart ach. The young boy had a slim, short build, with pale flawless skin. He had a heart shaped face and honey golden hair. The most amazing by far were his eyes, a large, wide, childish, pale yellow-green. **

**When the boy arrived in front of them. Kamui bowed respectfully and murmured, "Suki-sama."**

**The boy named Suki smiled and said, "Hello, I'm Suki, the one in charge." **

**When Sakura blinked and stared in surprise he explained, "I may look the youngest here, but I'm actually the oldest. Though I may be the newest addition to the tribe, and probably the least controlled, the rest of the tribe insisted that I become the leader."**

**Sakura nodded in understanding. Kamui then added, "Suki-sama is also a royal. It is a great honor that Suki-sama decided to join our tribe." **

**As the weeks went by, Sakura soon became quite close and at ease with the tribe. She especially became close to Suki and Kamui. The tribe of vampires accepted Sakura into the tribe with open arms, but the only thing they refused to allow her to see was them hunting. When she asked why, the only replied that when they hunted, they lost control. **

**It seemed that royal bloods weren't called royal just for show. They were more beautiful, stronger, and all vampires loved and revered them. It was impossible for another vampire to disobey, or harm a royal blood in any way. **

**When one day, out of curiosity, Sakura asked how they became royal, Suki replied that no one was sure. It seemed that once a vampire was born, they were always either ****Normal:**** which was the most common,****Knight:**** which was rather rare, ****Noble:**** very rare, and ****Royal:**** Extremely rare. No one knew why some became a normal and some became a royal. **

**One day, after staying with the vampires for about 9 months. Sakura decided to go visit Konoha for a while. Well, Sakura didn't want to, but Suki insisted. As Sakura was traveling in the direction of Konoha, she heard something like a snarl. Wondering what in the world it was, she quietly headed in the direction she heard the noise. **

**When she got there, Sakura's eyes widened in surprise when she saw that it was Suki and Kamui. Sakura swore silently in her mind, they were hunting. She had to get out of there! Turning quickly, Sakura gave a yelp of surprise when she saw that somehow, Suki had ended up behind her. **

"**Suki-san! I'm s-sorry for intruding. I-I'll leave now." Sakura stuttered while backing away from him. **

"**Prey-chan? How do you know my name? How can Prey-chan be intruding?" Asked Suki innocently.**

**Sakura's eyes widened in fear as she thought, **_**Prey-chan? Crap! He doesn't know who I am.**_

**Knowing that if she stayed, Suki could kill her, Sakura started to run…**

**Author note: Yay! I'm done with the chapter. This whole chapter was what had happened to Sakura before the first chapter. The next chapters the one that really starts things up. I want to also thank my reviewers. Thank you! I don't know if I'm going to do a pairing or not, but I'll think about it. **


	3. Chapter 3

III

Back

As Sakura fell into a painful darkness, a darkness where pain was all there was, Kamui quickly picked her up and hurried back to the tribe. Suki was a wreck, he blamed himself and his depression sent a grim cloud over the tribe. Not once did Suki leave her side, he sated his thirst with blood tablets instead. Once in a while a member of the tribe would come into the room to check up on them, and to leave a rose on the bedside table. Kamui, like Suki, never left Sakura's side. During the three days that Sakura transformed, Suki sat firmly next to her bed, and Kamui stood guard outside the door, even though there was no need.

Slowly, but surely, Sakura was changing. Every single blemish on her skin disappeared leaving her skin smooth and flawless. As a beating heart became unnecessary, Sakura's skin grew pale. Even though vampires did not need to breath, or have a beating heart to live, most just did it due to habit. Her body was changing as well. Suki watched in silent awe, as her face became one to rival a goddess. Sakura's form didn't change very much considering the fact that because she was a konochi, her body was already very beautiful.

Her chakra became endless and her speed, strength, sight, smell, hearing, and just everything about her rose at an alarming rate. As Suki saw this, his eyes grew wide with shock. "Kamui!" he yelled.

Kamui immediately rushed into the room fearing something bad had befallen Sakura or Suki. What he saw when he came in was a wide-eyed Suki standing over Sakura's form. Confusion written on his face, Kamui gave Suki a questioning look.

Suki's eyes met Kamui's, "She's going to be a royal…"

Kamui's eyes widened in shock at what Suki said.

"A royal? Sakura-san is becoming a royal? Are you sure it is a royal Suki-sama, and not a noble or a knight?" Asked Kamui.

Suki nodded his head. "I'm positive, it's a royal."

The two of them quickly turned when Sakura's paints of pain suddenly stopped. What they saw made Kamui fall to his knees and for Suki to feel slightly awed for once in his life. There in front of them was Sakura. Fully changed into a vampire. Her pale pink hair had grown longer, and silkier. It framed her lovely heart shaped face. Sakura's slim, curvy, petite form was enough to make even other female vampire jealous, and not that any would dare because surrounding her was a terribly powerful aura. An aura that only a newborn royal, or an angry royal had.

"Sakura-chan?" Suki whispered softly.

"Suki…please, I need blood." Sakura begged in a beautiful, alluring voice. Her once bright green eyes were blood red, signifying her thirst.

Do to the overwhelming presence of Sakura, Kamui had to use all his will power not to go out and bring Sakura fresh human blood. There was no doubt; Sakura was a royal, and a powerful one at that. Suki remembered what Sakura had told him before falling into the painful coma like state.

**Flashback:**

"**Suki-san…please, don't let me drink human blood…please, I would never be able to forgive myself if I did."**

Remembering this, he quickly grabbed his own supply of blood tablets, and spilling out a few, quickly handed them to her. Luckily, Sakura's will to be a, "vegetarian", was stronger then her blood lust, but only by a little. She quickly swallowed the pills, and collapsed on to the bed in a heap.

Suki and Kamui quickly rushed over.

"Sakura-sama! Are you alright?" Asked Kamui, his voice filled with fear and worry.

"Ah…I'm fine." She rasped out.

Sakura's blood lust had dulled, but it wasn't enough. Suki saw this and quickly ordered, "Kamui, get the emergency blood supply."

Kamui was out of the room in milliseconds. The tribe, for situations like these kept an emergency supply of deer blood. Kamui quickly returned and handed her the large bottle of blood. Sakura hurriedly opened it with shaking hands, and drank the sweet red liquid.

As her thirst got sated, Suki sighed in relief. Her aura was now less intimidating, and her eyes were green again.

-

-

-

At the Konoha gate, two Jounins were standing watch. They became suddenly alert as they felt a presence coming near Konoha. As their hands strayed toward their weapons, a hooded figure came into view.

Sakura was wearing the same outfit that she wore when leaving Konoha. The only difference was that she had a white hooded cloak on. The hood was up because Sakura knew with it down, her pink hair, green eyes and her impossible beauty would draw too much attention.

It had been three months since she had become a vampire, and not just any vampire, a royal. As Sakura gazed at Konoha, she realized that she hadn't been home for a whole year. She wondered how her everyone would react when they saw her.

-

-

-

The tribe had left after their yearlong stay, and they had begged Sakura to come with them, but she had declined. Many had offered to stay with her, to be her personal servant, but once again, Sakura had declined, saying that she would be fine by herself. It never ceased to amaze her how loyal vampires were to their royals. It had taken a few weeks for her to grow accustomed to being adored.

Sakura, like the rest of the tribe, was a "vegetarian". Not once, did she, or will she, drink human blood. It was amazing how much control she had. No vampire in history had the control that Sakura displayed. She could go to a hospital full of human blood and not even be tempted. Heck! Sakura even helped a woman give birth, and bandaged bloody patients.

You're probably wondering why she was at a hospital in the first place. After a month of being a vampire, Sakura decided to go to the hospital and help out there. She was a medic, how pathetic of a medic would she be if she couldn't even handle a little blood.

Now, after a whole year of being with vampires, Sakura was back.

-

-

-

"Freeze! Who are you?" The Jounins barked. Eyeing her warily.

"Please calm down. I'm a ANBU here." Sakura calmly replied.

The Jonin's eyes widened in surprise when they heard her voice, it was so beautiful, like a sirens.

Still not putting her hood down, Sakura calmly handed them her headband, her mission scroll and with a quick flash, showed them her ANBU tattoo. They nodded unsurely, after checking her papers, letting her in. Sakura effortlessly jumped up on to the roof and slowly, for her, headed off towards the Hokage tower.

When she arrived, Sakura calmly walked up to Tsunade's door lightly knocked. Hearing a curt, "come in" Sakura carefully opened the door and walked in.

**Dèjá vu!!!!!! **Inner shouted.

Sighing, Sakura had to agree. There, like before was Tsunade, surrounded by undone paper work, drinking sake.

Tsunade looked up from and eyed her warily. "Who are you?" she barked.

Sakura gave a small smile and pulled down her hood. She watched in amusement when Tsunade stared at her, her bottle of sake forgotten in her hand.

"Sakura? Sakura, is that you?" Tsunade asked in a hushed whisper.

"Hai…" She answered back.

Tsunade stared at her in shock. She had changed so much. Then she realized the truth, and her eyes widened in horror.

"Sakura! They changed you?!!!" Tsunade screamed, her eyes wide.

"One of them made a mistake…But Tunade-sama, please don't worry, I'm a "vegetarian". I can even work at the hospital without any trouble." Sakura reassured.

Tsunade dropped her head into her hands. Her whole body trembled. "I'm so sorry, it's my fault, I shouldn't have sent you on that mission." She whispered.

Sakura smiled sadly. "Tsunade-sama. Please look at me."

When Tsunade looked up and gazed into her glowing green eyes, she saw no regret.

"Tsunade-sama, I'm glad that I became a vampire. I love the strength, the power and the respect."

At the respect part, Tsunade raised her eyebrow in question. Sakura smiled and calmly explained. "I'm sure you know that vampires have groups. Normal, Knight, Nobel, or Royal, well, I'm a royal."

Tsunade's eyes widened in surprise, "A royal? That's amazing!!!"

Sakura sweatdropped at Tsunade's enthusiasm, suddenly, she became serious. "Are you sure you can work at the hospital, you know that because of the shinobi patients, there's going to be a lot of blood."

Sakura smiled happily. "I have the best control in vampire history. I don't get tempted at all." Sakura boasted proudly.

Tsunade smiled and murmured. "I'll take your word for it."

-

-

-

When Sakura arrived at Ino's family flower shop, Sakura frowned, and wondered how Ino would react. With a shrug, Sakura coolly pushed open the door, causing the silver bells to tinkle.

**Man! We're getting a lot of Dèjá vu today!!!!**

Sakura sweatdropped at her Inner's yelling/observation…

_Ah…_ she mentally replied.

Sakura saw with a faint feeling of relief that Ino hadn't changed at all. Heck! She was still reading the same medical book. Actually, Sakura was slightly worried about that.

**She's still reading that book? It's been a year…**

Sakura sweatdropped again, but she had to agree.

Ino looked up from her book and putting on one of her fake smiles she asked, "Yes, how may I help you?"

Sakura pulled down her hood, and gave Ino a smirk. Ino's eyes grew as wide as saucers. "Sakura?!!!!!!"

"Ah…" Sakura answered, her face growing slightly cold. She felt awkward now that she was here. When Ino rushed over to embrace her, Sakura flinched and smoothly sidestepped her. Ino blinked in surprise. _Why did she dodge?_ She wondered. Ino for the first time, noticed how much she had changed. Her beauty and the strength that was being emitted from Sakura made her feel small, weak and insignificant.

Sakura didn't know what was wrong with herself; _why did I suddenly flinch and dodge Ino's hug?_ What Sakura didn't know was that newborns, like herself, were very wary and distrusting of people. It was a small surviving instinct that newborns had. Sakura had felt it slightly with Tsunade as well, but she had pushed it away into the back of her mind. It also helped that Tsunade didn't try to hug her or anything.

As Sakura pondered on why she did what she did, Ino was staring at her in shock.

"Sakura?" Ino whispered softly.

Sakura turned to look at Ino straight in the eye, making the blonde flinch slightly. "Ah?"

"Um…how long have you been back?" Asked Ino

"A hour or two." Sakura replied.

Ino frowned slightly, a crease appearing between her brows. Then she looked up and cautiously asked, "Have you met them yet?"

When Sakura gave Ino a confused look, Ino realized with surprise that Sakura didn't know yet. How could she have not known? It had been the topic of everyone in Fire Country, yet Sakura didn't seem to know. Had she really gone to such an isolated place that she didn't even hear the news?

"Um…never mind…" Ino nervously stuttered as she saw Sakura's eyes slightly narrow suspiciously.

In a warning tone she asked, "Ino. What are you hiding from me?"

"Nothing!!! Nothing of course!!" Ino frantically tried to deny. Sakura wasn't fooled. Giving Ino a glare, that clearly said that she was going to give her five seconds to spill the beans, Sakura carefully picked out a bouquet of lilies.

Sighing in defeat, Ino warily decided to tell her. Praying to Kami-sama for Sakura to not destroy her flower shop, Ino started.

"Um…well you see…two months ago, your team returned…"

Sakura blinked, her face passive. For some reason, Sakura's calm face terrified Ino. It was so unlike her. Usually, Sakura would blow up, smile, or disappear to meet her team, but at the moment, Sakura was acting as if Ino had just told her that Tsunade was drinking sake again. No reaction.

"Um…Sakura?" Ino tentatively called.

"Hmm?"

Her voice was so uncaring, so relaxed. Ino was freaking out.

"Well you see…they didn't come back alone…"

This time, Ino did get a response. One which Ino hated, the kind that Shikamaru gave her, a bored look of faint surprise and curiosity.

Finally Sakura opened her mouth to speak, "Sasuke is back." It was not a question.

When Ino gave her a nervous nod, Sakura smiled softly, paid, and walked out with her bouquet of lilies.

-

-

-

"Mother, father, I'm back…"

Sakura was in front of her parent's graves. Sighing, she crouched down and ran her pale, perfect hand over the tombstone lovingly. Blinking blankly, her face emotionless and cold, Sakura stood up, and in a blur of white, black and pink, disappeared…

_Naruto, Sai, Kakashi…Sasuke…Man, I am so coming to kick your ass to Texas… wherever that is…_

**You got to ask Kamui and Suki where that is when they come to visit.**

_Yeah…_

**Let's go scare the shit out of them!!! **


	4. Chapter 4

IV

Chuunin Exams

Part 1

As Sakura pulled her hood back up, she headed off toward the direction where she felt Naruto's unmistakable flare of chakra. Her face blank, she found herself wondering how strong everyone had become. Masking her chakra, she carefully crouched in the branch of a large tree, watching team 7 argue.

Sakura's gaze first went to Naruto. **The baka's the same as ever.** Inner observed as Naruto continued to annoy his team mates, the grass, the trees, the air, the earth, the heavens, and even god…heck, he was annoying everyone and everything in general.

Next, her gaze drifted toward the lazy pervert of a teacher, the one and only…Kakashi!!! Sakura could practically see the pervert aura glowing from his book and his head. **That book so has to go.** Inner hissed.

Then her gaze turned to Sai. He was calmly drawing something that looked a lot like a girl? …_Must be the mistake…_Sakura thought, while Inner said, **Or maybe he's in love!!!! **

Finally, her gaze turned to the last male member of team 7. Sasuke. Sakura thanked Kami-sama that Sasuke wasn't wearing the horrible outfit that he used to wear at Orochimaru's; it had been quite an eye sore, and Sakura had gotten a major headache from Inner Sakura lamenting constantly in her head.

They seemed to be arguing about something. Sakura didn't bother going closer. Why would she when she could hear just perfectly right where she was? Being a vampire sure had its quirks. Gathering all the information she gained by listening to their conversation, Sakura learned quite a few things.

It seemed that Itachi was not yet killed, but Sasuke had decided that he would get a better chance in Konoha to kill Itachi, then anywhere else. Of course, he would never admit it, but Sasuke had, deep in his heart, missed his friends. No matter how hard he had tried, he just couldn't seem to break his bonds.

When Kakashi, Sai, and Naruto had come and asked him to return to Konoha, Sasuke had agreed, but to one condition. They had to beaten by him in an all out battle. In the end, Kakashi, Sai and Naruto had won, and Sasuke had ended up returning with them.

Konoha had given him a surprisingly small punishment. It was probably because he was the last Uchiha, not counting his brother, and because he had killed Orochimaru, that they had given him such a light sentence.

All that they did was, not allow him outside of Konoha until Tsunade said he was allowed to, to put him on probation for a year, before he was truly trusted, and they didn't allow him to go on any solo missions, even if it was a simple D-ranked.

Kakashi, Sai and Naruto all in turn got punishments as well, because the three of them had gone off to find Sasuke without the Hokage's permission, they had to be punished. Sai and Naruto's punishments was that they were lowered back to Genin rank until they took the Chuunin exam, Jounin exam and ANBU exam and passed,_ AGAIN!! _

Kakashi's punishment was the cruelest. He had to house Naruto, Sasuke and Sai in his own house. As far as Kakashi was concerned, Tsunade was a mental old bat for making him, _him_ out of all people to house the troublesome three, as he deftly labeled them, but Kakashi had no choice.

-

-

-

At the moment, all three were arguing about the Chuunin exam. Sasuke, Naruto and Sai wanted to take the one that was starting in two days, but Kakashi on the other hand, wanted them to wait a until the next one so they had time to prepare, but the three objected. Kakashi was fighting a losing war.

Finally, Kakashi gave in. Sakura had to sweatdrop at how easily he let the three push him around.

"Fine. You can take it." He sighed.

"Yes!!!! Chuunin exams here I come!!!!" Screamed Naruto.

Sakura on the other hand agreed with Kakashi. Why? Because it would be easier for them if they gathered information on the exam before taking it, but because they wanted to take the exam that was starting in less then 48 hours, they wouldn't have enough time to gather the necessary data.

Straightening her hood, so that it covered all of her hair, and most of her face, Sakura unperturbedly jumped down from her perch and landed in behind the four men. All three of them instantly got into a fighting stance as they eyed her cautiously.

"Who are you?" Kakashi asked while holding back a jumping Naruto from attacking at once.

Sakura sighed at her team's antics. Lowering her hood, Sakura said, "Hm…I wonder who I am. Maybe you can tell me?"

Her team's eyes grew wide. "S-Sakura?" Naruto yelled in shock.

"Ah…" she replied calmly.

"Sakura-chan!!!"

"Sakura…when did you return?"

"Ugly…?"

"…"

All four of them said at the same time eyes wide, staring at Sakura in shock, amazement, disbelief, or with no emotion at all. Sasuke was the one who didn't seem really effected, but inside he too, was in shock.

"Ah… You know, Kakashi's right about taking the exam later on, but…" Sakura shrugged at the end.

"Sakura-chan! I heard you were on a S-classed mission. What was it?" Naruto asked, his eyes wide and curious.

Sakura just blinked blankly at them before replying, her face blank, "Confidential."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow, and asked, "You went on a S-rank mission?" His tone was saturated with disbelief. Sakura just calmly replied, "Why wouldn't I? I'm an ANBU." With that said, Sakura started to walk away.

**Hey!!!! Why are you just walking away? I thought we were going to kick their ass?!!!**Inner Sakura ranted.

Outer Sakura replied,_we can do that later, during the Chuunin exams._

While Sakura was walking away, Sasuke drew a blunt kunai and threw it at her to get her attention. Without even turning, Sakura snatched it, with two fingers, out of the air with lightening speed. She still hadn't faced them yet, but she did stop walking. Without any effort at all, Sakura crushed the kunai as if it was made from warm butter.

Her four teammates were frozen in shock, staring at her nervously. She was giving off a strange aura, an aura that practically screamed unknown power. Sasuke didn't know how it was possible, but the kunai she had crushed with ease was slowly but surely rusting and crumpling right before their eyes. Sakura's team watched in shock as she opened her hand, letting the iron dust blow away in the wind, the iron being the only thing left from the blunt kunai.

She slowly turned around and shot them a glance. The look in her eyes was blank, as if she was bored, as if she had no emotion at all. It was worse then the look Sai had when he first met team 7. It was worse then the expression Sasuke had when they had met him after two and a half years of his departure from Konoha.

Sakura raised one delicate eyebrow before turning away from them again. Her gaze had clearly been a warning. Even though there had been no emotion in them, they had sent a message. A message that said, don't mess with me. With that being done, she started to walk away again. When Naruto took a step towards her, Sakura's form flickered, before disappearing all together.

After Sakura disappeared, the male members of team 7 had just stood there in the clearing in silent shock. All of them were remembering her cold, blank gaze. Then without a single word spoken, they all left.

-

-

-

Sakura had been meaning to get to her house to wash up and maybe do a little bit of training but now, after meeting her team, she changed her mind. She started to head back to the Hokage tower to discuss something with her former second teacher.

"Hokage-sama." Sakura politely murmured as she walked into Tsunade's office for the second time that day.

"Sakura? Why are you back so soon? It's only been, what, an hour, an hour and half, since I last saw you?"

"I have a favor to ask of you…" An interested look crossed Tsunade's face when she heard this.

"A favor? What?" Tsunade asked

"I wish to be one of examiners for the Chuunin exam starting in about 38 hours…" Sakura replied.

Tsunade had one of her elbows on her desk, and her chin was cupped in her hand. She had a smirk on her face as she took a large swallow of sake.

"I see… Permission granted."

-

-

-

Sasuke, Naruto and Sai were at the moment walking down the halls in the academy building, heading towards room 301. Like before, there was genjutsu on room 201, tricking some genin into believing that it was actually the right room. The three of them on the other hand passed by the room without even bothering to spare it a glance. None of them bothered to correct the large group of genins. Why should they? They would just end up being competition.

When they walked into room 301, the trios were greeted by the same atmosphere that had hovered in the air when Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura had first taken the exam, fear, nervousness, cockiness, bloodlust and deception.

Just then, there was a large burst of smoke as a group of Jounins and Chuunins appeared. Sasuke noticed that the examiner from the last time he had taken the exam, Ibiki, was back again. Sasuke mentally cursed. It was just their luck that Ibiki, the head of torture and interrogating was their first examiner.

"Be silent, and look up here!" Ibiki commanded.

Everyone immediately froze. Everyone but Naruto that is.

"Ehh!?? Your our examiner again?!!!!" Naruto practically screamed.

Sasuke just closed his eyes and muttered, "Baka."

Lucky for him, Naruto didn't hear him. Sai on the other hand was confused; he had his fake smile on again. Ibiki just choose to ignore Naruto.

"Listen up! This exam is to test your patience. At the present, there are a total of 150 candidates. All of you will stay in this room and do nothing. No talking no moving. If you are caught doing anything suspicious three times, you will be immediately disqualified. You can only pass the test if you manage to finish it, the test will only finish when there are only 20 teams left. If one of your teammates are unable to continue, or if they are disqualified, your whole team is disqualified. Do you understand?!!!"

With that being said, Ibiki and the rest of the examiners sat in chairs that were placed up against the walls. Sasuke couldn't help but smirk. The object of this test was so obvious. They weren't testing your patience; they were testing your silent fighting and silent defending skills. They were seeing how well you could attack and defend without anyone realizing it. Sasuke could tell that Naruto had got it too because he turned his head and flashed Sasuke, who was coolly sitting next to him, a grin. Sai got it too, because he had looked Sasuke dead on in the eye with a look that said he understood. The three of them started their work.

Ibiki was watching with a curious eyes as candidate after candidate fell to the ground either unconscious or dead. The examiners were calling the names of the fallen teammates to leave the exam, nonstop.

Sasuke, who was wearing a long, loose sleeved, white shirt, summoned some snakes without any sacrifice or hand signs. Usually, these snakes were used for assignation missions, but they would work here as well. When the snakes slithered out of his sleeves, no one noticed because they were invisible. Quickly, and silently, they navigated through the sea of legs, and bit the ankle of the person Sasuke wanted to get rid of. The poor victims would pass out at once, because of the poison in the snake's fangs.

Naruto, whose natural element was wind, was sending out quick, unnoticeable gusts of air towards other candidates. The slash of air would silently hit a pressure point, and with that, they would fall unconscious.

Sai had let a small blob of black ink, slide down his body, down to his legs, and into the crevices in the floor. After that, the ink traveled through the cracks, between the wooden floor, and climbed up people's pants until it reached the victim's neck. At the neck, the blob of ink would transform into a small snake and bit the victim's pressure point in the neck.

Quickly, team by team were disqualified. Soon, only 20 teams were left.

"Stop!" Barked Ibiki. Everyone in the room froze.

"All of you pass." Ibiki calmly stated.

"I don't think I need to explain the true concept of this test do I?" he asked.

Just then, Sakura walked into the room. Her beauty caused many of the males in the exam to get nosebleeds. Sasuke, Naruto and Sai just ended up glaring at the perverted males, though they too were fighting nosebleeds. Sakura seemed different from before. She had a large smile on her face and her eyes were glowing with admiration. _A mask_. All three male members of team 7 realized. They knew that the smile and the look of admiration was fake, it was only there for a purpose, though they didn't know what it was.

"Wow! You guys are so amazing! How were you able to trick so many examiners?!!!"

Some of the guys in the room proudly started to tell her how they were able to fool the examiners, while some girls haughtily bragged as well. Naruto, Sasuke and Sai didn't though. They knew something was up.

Their hypothesis was soon proven true when Sakura's fake smile suddenly disappeared, and the look of admiration in her eyes disappeared rapidly as well, leaving behind a blank, emotionless, look. All of the teams stopped talking at once. They stared at Sakura in shock as she icily called out, "Team 4, 12, 50, 39, 23, and team 13 are disqualified."

"What!!!!!" The stated teams cried out in shock.

Sakura gave them a blank look before replying; "A ninja must never brag and give out information about themselves, and their teammates, to the enemy. A ninja should always be alert, even when the danger seems to have passed, a ninja should always be ready for the worst. That is why you all fail."

The teams were then led out of the room, either in shock, anger or just amazement.

Sakura then turned to the rest of the teams left, and counted that there was still 15 teams left. Fifteen teams meant that there was still 45 contestants left.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto called out with a large grin on his face. His grin immediately disappeared when she barely gave him a glance, her gaze cold. _She looks like an ice goddess_. Many of the contestants thought.

"My alias is Cat, it is not Sakura, Sakura-chan or Saku-chan. I'm your next examiner. It seems that there is still 45 contestants left… I'll be cutting that down to 21 at the most. It is also possible that only 1 team may pass my exam, so I advise you to be ready."

She then swiftly turned and called out, "Follow me, we're going to the Forest of Death."

Naruto's eyes widened as he cried out, "What! Again?!!!!"

Sakura coolly turned to look at him. She blinked and smirked,

She gave a rather chilling laugh. "Ah…are you afraid? You should be."

**Good luck children!!! ** Inner crowed evilly.

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-

A/N: I want to thank everyone who read my story, and everyone who reviewed. Thank You!!!...this may sound a bit annoying but please, I would love it if you would review.


	5. Chapter 5

V

Chuunin Exam

Part 2

A/N: Your probably wondering why I never respond to my reviews. My parents are a "bit" overprotective so I'm not allowed to email anyone don't I know. (insert eye-roll) So I'll answer my reviews at the end of this chapter! Oh, and um I got a review saying that my idea is lame, I'm not mad or anything but I'm asking you if you think my plot is bad, next time could you give a bit of advise so I could change it and make it better?

Also! I'm thinking of doing a pairing, but I'm not sure... These are the choices, Sasuke, Naruto, Sai, Neji, Garra (though I would need a bit of help on that one) and Itachi. Maybe Deidara too. So which one would you like?

**Recap: "My alias is Cat, it is not Sakura, Sakura-chan or Saku-chan. I'm your next examiner. It seems that there is still 45 contestants left… I'll be cutting that down to 21 at the most. It is also possible that only 1 team may pass my exam, so I advise you to be ready." **

**She then swiftly turned and called out, "Follow me, we're going to the Forest of Death."**

**Naruto's eyes widened as he cried out, "What! Again?!!!!"**

**Sakura coolly turned to look at him. She blinked and smirked, while giving a rather chilling laugh.**

"**Ah…are you afraid? You should be." **

**Good luck children****!!! Inner crowed evilly. **

When the group arrived at the Forest of Death, Sakura stopped and turned to gaze at the 45 contestants. She blinked calmly as she said, "In this exam, at the most, only 21 of you will pass. For the idiots here who can't do math, that's the equivalent of 7 teams. Each of your teams will get a scroll with the number of a specific team. Each team will get a word that only your own team will know. To pass this exam, you must find the secret word from the team on your list and get to the tower. The first 7 teams to arrive at the tower with their necessary word will pass. To put it simply, this is a test of survival, interrogation, tracking, and endurance. You have only 5 days to complete your task and arrive at the tower. If one of your teammate dies, then your whole team is disqualified. Also, your whole team must arrive at the tower, with your scroll, before you can pass. Any questions?"

The poor contestants looked around at each other wearily. Then Sasuke raised his hand. "How can we know which team is which?"

Sakura coolly turned to him and replied, "When each team comes into that enclosed area", she pointed at a small stand that was hidden from view due to a thick black curtain surrounding it, "you will get your word, your list, and your armband." At this she pulled out a bright white armband with a number on it in bright red. "This armband is how other teams will be able to know which team you are. There's a "special" jutsu on it, so if I were you, I wouldn't even try to take it off or cover it."

With that being said, Sakura gracefully glided over to the stand. Looking at each other, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sai followed. When they got into the tent. They were given a scroll which had the number 9 written on it. Next, they were all given an armband that had the number 7 on it in red. Finally, Sakura pulled out a sheet of paper. "This is your word." She said while holding the paper up for them to see. In black ink was the word **HEAVEN**. After she showed all three of them their word, she quickly destroyed it by tossing the piece of paper into the fire.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sai then walked out of the enclosed area and saw that everyone was staring nervously at them. Sasuke smirked while Naruto grinned rather evilly. Sai just gazed at them curiously. Their scroll was in Sasuke's pack because he was the least likely to lose it.

As the teams got their necessary information, Sasuke was looking carefully around for team 9. Then he saw them. A group of leaf genins, _they should be easy to deal with_, Sasuke thought. Then all the teams were lead to their own gate, at exactly noon, the gates creaked open. Team 7 immediately headed off towards their destination, team 9.

-

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-

Sakura was getting rather thirsty. She knew that she would have to drink soon. Even though she wouldn't get tempted for human blood, Sakura knew that if she didn't drink, something bad might happen. It was lucky for her that vampires, especially royals, didn't have to drink a lot. She only had to drink once every two months.

Carefully, Sakura reached into her pocket and brought out her supply of blood tablets. While making sure that no one was looking, Sakura quickly swallowed two of the pale pink tablets.

Suddenly, a Jounin came running in, precipitation glistened on his brows.

"ANBU Cat-sama!!! We have trouble. Two Akatsuki members have just entered the Forest of Death!!!" He panted.

Sakura looked up in surprise. The Jounin found himself feeling slightly relieved when he saw how calm and unworried she looked.

"Which members?" She asked softly, her expression bored.

"Uchiha Itachi and a former mist shinobi, Hoshigaki Kisame I believe!!"

Sakura blinked lazily as she replied, "I see, please inform Hokage-sama about this and tell her that I will deal with it."

"Hai!!"

Sakura frowned. She was sure, almost positive that they were after Naruto…again. A smirk rose on her face at the thought of how shocked the Akatsuki would be after she was through with them.

With that thought in mind, Sakura quickly changed into a black tank top, black biker shorts, and a simple short white skirt over that. Then she tied her headband around her waist and covered her ANBU tattoo with white bandages. Do to her shortness, and pink hair, Sakura looked like an innocent, little, weak genin, which was exactly what she wanted. Quickly masking her own chakra, she dashed into the forest.

-

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-

Naruto, Sasuke and Sai had found their group of genins with ease. They had stupidly lighted a fire to cook fish that they had caught. Sasuke, Naruto and Sai on the other hand had replenished their own energy with energy bars. The three of them had already had been attacked by a team, that team had been all knocked out with ease. To make sure that they wouldn't be able to complete the exam, Naruto destroyed their scroll.

"Akira-kun! Here you go." The female of the team chirped while handing a boy with pale silver hair a fish. The boy accepted the food coldly without bothering to look up. Sasuke found himself thinking that the scene looked quite familiar.

"Yuri-chan! That's not fair! I'm your twin, but you always give him the food first!" The third member of the team wailed. He was on the short side with short brown messy locks, and large brown eyes. The girl, his sister, he was talking to looked a lot like him except for the fact that she was a girl and her brown hair was long.

"Well too bad! Suck it up Yuki." The girl replied. Yuki scowled and huffed childishly.

Sasuke drew a kunai and with a flick of his wrist he shot it into the clearing where the genin were. Sai and Naruto immediately flashed over to the two boys and slammed them against a tree. The girl, Yuri, screamed when she saw the kunai, in Sai and Naruto's hand, against her teammates necks.

Just for the heck of it Naruto had changed his blue eyes to red and had grown his canines a bit, he assumed that scaring them would work the best. Sai had his fake smile on his face that for some reason sent a shiver down everybody's spine. Finally, for the grand effect, Sasuke suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of the girl, his Sharingan on. His face emotionless, he harshly asked, "What is your word?"

The girl's face was one of terror; she was frantically looking at her teammates, as if pleading for their help.

"Tell us, or I'm afraid my shirt will get blood stains." Sai said cheerfully. Naruto raised his eyebrows and stared at Sai, his expression said, _what the hell?_ Sai just gave Naruto a confused look.

Sasuke watched as the girl screamed desperately, "I'll tell you! The word's Leaf, please, I told you so please let them go!"

"You're lying. I'll give you one last chance to tell us the truth." Sasuke had seen with his Sharingan her involuntary sideways glance at her teammates, and the slight shifting of weight. These were all the signs that he had needed to know that she was lying.

Naruto watched with pity as Sasuke broke the girl with his unwavering stare. Just then, his own captive, the girl's brother yelled, "Don't tell them Yuri-chan!"

_Hn. We're wasting time, let's get this over with…_ Sasuke thought.

"Naruto, kill him, he's being to loud, and we only need one hostage." Sasuke ordered.

The girl screamed in terror, "No! It's Falcon! Our word is Falcon!!!!!!"

Smirking in triumph, Sasuke knocked her out, and if on cue, Naruto and Sai hit the pressure points of the two boys. Sai then pulled out the genin's scroll from the weapon pouch of the silver haired boy, and quickly destroyed it. Sasuke took out their own scroll, and with one of Sia's brushes, wrote the kanji for Falcon.

With their work completed, the three of them headed off in the direction of the tower.

-

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-

Sakura sprinted at an amazing speed through the forest. The wildlife wisely left her alone, and the plants seemed to clear a path for her. Frowning in concentration, Sakura was able to predict how far away the Akatsuki were from her former teammates. She guessed that they were about 7 minutes away. Luckily, thanks to her speed, Sakura would make it to her teammates first with 3 minutes to spare. Following Naruto's distinct chakra signature, Sakura steadily went on.

When Naruto's chakra signature stopped moving, she guessed that they were stopping to rest, or maybe they had some opponents. What ever the case was, it was good for Sakura in the end because it would be difficult to go through with her plan if they were too close to the tower. She could easily imagine one of the examiners suddenly blurting out, "Hey, your not a contestant!" No, it would be far easier the farther from the tower.

-

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When Sakura arrived at the clearing where Sasuke, Naruto and Sai were resting, she quickly jumped down in front of them. Not even bothering to give an explanation, Sakura quickly ordered, "Naruto, Sai, Sasuke, you are to act like I am actually a contestant in this test. You are to act like I got separated from my team, and are trying to pry our word out of me." With that, she quickly made a few hand signs that turned her pink hair black and her green eyes blue.

Just then, Sakura suddenly faked an expression of fear, while whimpering, stuttered, "I-I really d-don't k-know. Please… I d-don't know!" At the last word, Sakura made her voice rise in fear, and her eyes fill up with tears. She trembled on the ground, her back pressed up against the trunk of a tree. To say that Naruto, Sai, and Sasuke was confused was an understatement. They were flabbergasted, shocked and bewildered.

Sakura gave them a quick glare. Sasuke had no idea what was going on, but he decided to play along. He pulled out his katana and held it next to her neck, as if he was about to slit her throat. He had his Sharingan activated, but his expression was one of boredom. Sai and Naruto gave a mental shrug, before getting into action as well. Sai was leaning against a tree with his famous fake smile in place, while Naruto was crouched down on the ground, playing with a kunai.

_10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5…_ Sakura counted mentally. _4 more seconds until they arrive_…_4, 3, 2…1!!!_ _They're here!_ Right on cue, two cloaked figures materialized from the shadows. All three of he boy's heads shot around to stare at the two figures.

"Akatsuki…" Sai murmured. Naruto was glaring furiously at the duo; his eyes were red as a low snarl escaped from his throat. Sasuke, to Itachi's faint surprise, was stoic, and seemed unaffected.

The two S-ranked criminal missing-nins' attentions were drawn suddenly to the figure of a girl when she gave a pitiful whimper of fear, but they lost interest quickly when they saw that she was no threat.

"Itachi" Sasuke said, his voice impassive.

"…" Was Itachi's response.

"We came for the Kyubi. Leave him, and you'll live." The elder Uchiha finally said.

Naruto gave another low growl, but then suddenly Kisame fell to the ground unconscious.

For the first time in many years, Itachi was surprised enough for him to actually show it. His eyes widened slightly at the figure of Kisame on the ground. He turned to his three opponents and saw that even they seemed shocked and perplexed but the sudden turn of events. _How_? Itachi wondered.

Out of nowhere a sudden beautiful, sweet, innocent voice chirped, "Hello!"

_The girl…_ Itachi thought as he gazed at the short, slender, beautiful female. In front of his eyes, she suddenly began to change. The black seemed to fade from her hair, leaving pale pink, and her blue eyes, suddenly became green.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Sai… Stay out of this." Sakura ordered.

She cocked her head to the side, a fake, gentle smile on her lips. Then without warning, she suddenly attacked. Her smile was gone now, leaving behind an unaffected expression of utter boredom. She was moving at an incredible speed, but with the Sharingan activated, and with his own impossible speed, he was able to react fast enough to replace himself with a log. The log had an exploding tag attached to it that promptly blew up in her face causing her to fly back a bit. When the smoke faded away, Sakura smiled and gently tapped the ground with her foot.

The forest floor tore apart, and Sakura was able to sight a faint flash of black and red before it disappeared. Of course, Sakura had no trouble finding him again. Even if he hid his chakra signature, she could still smell him, hear his heart beat, and see the slight rustle of leaves that shivered scarcely from the carbon dioxide he let out of his nose.

Sasuke, Naruto and Sai had jumped up into a tree when the exploding tag had detonated, and now were worriedly sweeping the destroyed ground with their eyes.

"There! Over there! I see her!" Naruto loudly whispered to the others when they spotted Sakura. Strangely enough, her cloths were ripped and burned in certain places, but she herself was untouched. Sasuke was debating with himself on whether or not he should go after Itachi. Unlike before, he wasn't a rash fool. Sasuke knew that Itachi had an advantage because Sasuke was already tired from training furiously that morning with Naruto, so even if he did fight Itachi, he wouldn't be able to win. Sasuke also knew that he was on probation, if he decided to ignore Sakura's direct order, he knew that it would be bad on his part. But at the same time he also knew that his… brother… would come for Naruto again, so if he stuck close to him, he would get a chance at Itachi again.

Cursing angrily, Sasuke finally decided that he would stay out of the fight unless Sakura was in trouble, or if she asked for assistance. If he attacked now, Sasuke may lose the chance of winning back Konoha's trust, which would ultimately end up being his loss. If he losses Konoha's trust, he wouldn't be allowed to go on any missions, and it would be a waste to just attack him now. If he did attack now, Sasuke knew that Itachi would win.

Sakura calmly tossed a kunai at where Itachi was hiding. When he caught it effortlessly with only one finger, he realized the mistake he had made. Somehow, she had placed a Genjutsu on the kunai without him realizing. Itachi quickly dropped the kunai when it suddenly became a arm, but it was too late on his part. The arm grabbed his wrist, while it's sharp nails dug into his skin.

Taking his free hand, Itachi slashed the arm, but saw to his surprise it explode into a flurry of wings. Pale white moths fluttered in the air while chains wrapped around his ankles. Itachi knew that he was in a Genjutsu, but he didn't know how. His Sharingan told him it was all an illusion, but for some reason it couldn't break it. It was as if she was constantly renewing the jutsu, _but that's impossible…_ He thought.

Then the white moths were circling him. Every time they flapped their wings, a small amount of fine white powder puffed off their wings into the air. Through instinct, he knew that the powder was dangerous; breathing it in was not an option for him. Making hand signs that were too fast for even Sakura to notice, Itachi made over a hundred different ways of breaking Genjutsu, in less then 1 second, but none of them seemed to work. He needed more time, but time was running out. Then it suddenly struck him. _Clever_. He thought. Itachi had to admit it her jutsu was ingenious.

Sakura watched curiously as Itachi slowly closed his eyes. Then suddenly, he snapped them open, revealing a strange and different type of Sharingan, the Mangekyo Sharingan. Her eyes widened with surprise when black flames suddenly appeared destroying her double poison moth summoning, and dispelling her Genjutsu.

_He figured it out? Just as I suspected, he's powerful, and intelligent, an IQ to rival Shikamaru perhaps? _

He had figured out that her moths were not part of the illusion. They were very much real, and it was because of them that he was caught the Genjutsu in the first place. Sakura's "Double Poison Moth Summoning" was a special jutsu that she had created. This jutsu had two different kinds of moth. Half of the moths were poisonous, and the white powder they gave off was the poison, but the rest of the others were illusion moths. Not that they were illusions, the illusion moths were just as real as the poison moths, illusion moth was just a "nickname". They looked exactly the same as the poison moths but the white powder they gave off were fake, but what they really did was send out high pitched sounds, that humans can't hear, which would confuse the brain, creating a Genjutsu.

Itachi knew that at the rate the battle was going, he was going to lose. The elder Uchiha had lost quite amount of chakra because of his last attack. Kisame was still knocked out cold, and amazingly enough, the girl didn't seem to have depleted in chakra at all. With no choice, he came to the decision of retreat.

Without warning, Itachi suddenly threw a few shruikens at her. Sakura's eyes widened in surprise when the sharp metal stars suddenly appeared in front of her; they where thrown too fast, she couldn't dodge.

With a thunk, the shruikens hit her, but they just bounced off. There wasn't a single scratch on her. The truth was, Sakura's body had an absolute defense like Garra. Over her skin, there was an invisible thin barrier that absorbed all of the attack done on her, but at the same time, there didn't seem to be any difference in her skin. Her flesh was still soft and warm because out of habit she kept her heart beating, and the barrier was part of her, it was part of her skin. You could say that the barrier allowed unthreatening things past it, but it blocked everything threatening, including needles.

Itachi, Sasuke, Sai, and Naruto stared at her in shock. Sakura gazed blankly at them.

_What is she?_ The four males wondered.

**It seems they found out…** Inner mumbled, stating the obvious.

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Animemistress209: Thank you for being my first reviewer!!! You can't imagine how happy I was when I got your review!

Mayumi Crescent Moon: Thank You!!!! I love NejiSaku parings too! But I'm not sure how I would be able to fit it into this story... Any ideas?

Uchiha Babe: Thank You!!!! I tried to be a bit original, I'm glad someone likes my idea.

Pinky101: Thank You for your reviews!!! You inspired me to write more!!

Silent Kunoichi aka. Fiona: I love the PAMS idea. Can I use it too? Oh yeah! Thank you for your review!!

Narutocraze1233: Lol! I don't really know where the Texas idea came from... It just came...weird... Anyways! Thank you for the review!!!!

FakeCompassion: Yay!! I'm glad you like Suki and Kamui! I got the idea for Kamui's name from X/1999! I love that name too!!! Thank you for reviewing!!!

Gemgembo: Thank You!!! I'm really happy you liked it!!!!

Ravenuchiha: Thank You!!!!! I'm glad you like her!! I hope I didn't make her seem to weird.

Night'sBullet: Wow! That's an idea. Do you want werewolves? Oh, and Thank You for the review!!!!!!!

Luka1Sakura: Well thanks for the review anyways. I'm wondering, maybe next time, if you read this message that is, if you would maybe give a few ideas. Saying that the ideas lame is sort of open-ended...


	6. Chapter 6

VI

Chuunin Exam

Part 3

**A/N: I think I'm going to make this into an Itachi X Sakura pairing… The plot works best for them. I'm really, really, really sorry Neji X Sakura fans, and other pairing fans!**

**Recap: With a thunk, the shruikens's hit her, but they just bounced off. There wasn't a single scratch on her. The truth was, Sakura's body had an absolute defense like Garra. Over her skin, there was an invisible thin barrier that absorbed all of the attack done on her, but at the same time, there didn't seem to be any difference in her skin. Her flesh was still soft and warm because out of habit she kept her heart beating, and the barrier was part of her, it was part of her skin. You could say that the barrier allowed unthreatening things past it, but it blocked everything threatening, including needles. **

**Itachi, Sasuke, Sai, and Naruto stared at her in shock. Sakura gazed blankly at them. **

_**What is she?**_** The four males wondered. **

**It seems they found out…**** Inner mumbled, stating the obvious. **

Sakura raised a slim pink eyebrow while asking, "What?"

The four males were still staring at her warily, though Naruto and Sai sweatdropped at her question. Itachi was gazing at her with a blank face, but inside he was feeling a strange sense of curiosity. He couldn't help but wonder how she would fare against the torture of the Mangekyo world. Shutting his eyes, he flashed them open again showing the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Sasuke, who was monitoring his "brother" carefully, felt a pang of fear when he saw Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan again. "Don't look into his eyes!!!" Sasuke suddenly yelled out in terror, but it was too late.

Though Naruto, and Sai had escaped by lowering their heads, Sakura was already gazing into the deadly crimson eyes. Sasuke could only watch in horror when he saw her and Itachi locked in gaze. Sharingan spinning, he quickly entered her mind to see what kind of torture Itachi was doing to her.

When he entered the crimson world of the Sharingan, he saw at once where Sakura was. Itachi had her strapped to a cross, as he stood in front of her with a katana. Sasuke's eyes bled red when he saw Itachi stab her with the blade. Sakura flinched, but otherwise didn't react. As her eyes closed, she softly panted weakly.

"Leave her alone." Sasuke voiced in a cool voice. Itachi uncaringly angled his body slightly in the direction of Sasuke, obviously stating that Sasuke wasn't important enough to gain his full attention. Sasuke suddenly flashed over to Itachi while pulling out his katana in the process. The two blades met with a clash of metal on metal.

Though it didn't seem like Sasuke did much, he actually distracted Itachi enough for Sakura to break free of the Genjutsu. The red world slowly started to fade as Sakura broke the jutsu. Then with a snap, the Sharingan world flickered out, leaving a battling Sasuke and Itachi.

Sakura was pissed. She couldn't believe that someone, especially **Sasuke**, saved her, AGAIN! Sai and Naruto had lifted their heads when they had heard the clash of blades from the katanas of the two Uchihas. What they saw sent a shiver of cold terror down their spine. Sakura, the once innocent, kind Sakura, was glaring coldly at the two Uchihas. Her face was a beautiful icy mask, and the aura that surrounded her reeked of power. Naruto was reminded of himself when the Kyuubi came out. Swirling air circled her, whipping her hair around, while her eyes glowed red, then violet.

When the two brothers felt a strange foreign power close by, they froze and turned to gaze at Sakura. The pink haired vampire glared while hissing, "Itachi, take your friend and go." Her voice seemed to strike the elder sibling with a thud as he found himself doing what she said to do involuntarily. Sasuke, Sai and Naruto watched flabbergasted as Itachi quickly picked up the blue shark man, and making a few hand signals, disappeared.

Sakura then turned to the three boys, and while glaring with violet eyes, ordered, "Hurry up and finish the test." With that she disappeared as well. Sasuke, Sai and Naruto were standing there in shock, quite like the time when Sakura had first shown up at the training ground after a year and 4 months of absence. Without another word spoken, the three of them headed off to the tower once again.

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When the pink haired ANBU arrived at the tower to greet the contestants, she saw that Tsunade was already there. "Sakura! Are you all right? What happened?" She asked.

Sakura sighed while reporting, "I'm fine Hokaga-sama, thank you for asking. The two intruders have been chased away so you do not need to worry."

Tsunade sighed tiredly, "Good work."

Sakura gave her a respectful bow before quickly hurrying off to change. The first team to arrive was naturally Sasuke, Sai and Naruto. When they had tried to talk with Sakura, she had calmly ignored them. Soon the five days were up, and only 4 teams had made it in the end.

The third examiner was Kakashi this time, with Tsunade and Sakura watching to make sure he actually did his job right. The 12 contestants were waiting impatiently for the arrival of the examiner. Sasuke, Naruto and Sai saw that Tsunade was fuming and mumbling things under her breath what sounded like, "…burn…book…torture…kill…revive…torture…kill…revive…torture…kill…etc…"

The three of them sweatdropped, yes, even Sasuke.

When the examiner finally arrived. Tsunade gave the poor man a glare that screamed pain, while Sakura just glanced at him. Of course, Naruto had to yell, "YOUR LATE!!!...WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE KAKASHI-SENSEI?!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Shut up Baka." Sasuke grumbled while slapping Naruto across the head.

"For once I agree with Chicken Ass, shut up Dickless." Sai said with a smile. Both Sasuke and Naruto glared at the artist.

Kakashi sweatdropped and gave a cough to gain his students attention. They completely ignored him. Kakashi coughed louder again… they continued to ignore him. The rest of the contestants were staring at the three with expressions that said, _what the hell?_

Finally, Kakashi sighed. He knew the only way to gain their attention was through theSecret Double-Edged Tactic but in the end, he always ended up gaining a major headache from the bashing he received from Sakura.

Crying anime tears Kakashi dramatically yelled out, "OH NOOOO!!!! WHAT SHOULD I DOOOO?!!! SAKURA-CHANS GETTING MOLESTED BY PERVERTS!!!!!!!!"

He saw Sakura twitch. He saw the three boys freeze, then slowly turn around their eyes murderous.

"WHO THE F IS MOLESTING MY SAKURA?!!!!!!" They roared, (A/N: Actually, Naruto was the only one who yelled.) while glaring at everyone malevolently.

Everyone in the room, except for Sasuke, Sai and Naruto, sweatdropped.

"Okay then… I'm Hatake Kakashi, and I'm your next examiner. Because there are still too many of you, we will first have a preliminary round."

With that being said, he immediately went back to reading his book. Tsunade sighed as she said, first up is…

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In the end, Sai, Naruto, Sasuke, and three others passed the preliminaries. The other three that passed were all from sand.

As the three contestants glared at the other three, Kakashi just read his,_graphic_, novel…

"You naughty boy, taking advantage of a girl like that…" Kakashi giggled, a light blush on his cheek, everyone in the room sweatdropped while staring at him in faint disbelief.

"This is the great Konoha copy ninja?" A sand konochi asked her teammate. The boy in her team just shrugged. Tsunade had a vein throbbing on her forehead. "Sakura…" She said through gritted teeth. Said girl smiled gently, the smile that only an angel could have, though due to some "complications" Sakura had one too. Her beauty was like an angel, but truly, she was closer to a demon then an angel by far.

"Kakashi-sensei." Sakura gently murmured.

The silver haired jounin looked up in surprise. "Huh?" He found himself gazing into the face of a heavenly being. _Did I die while reading?_ Thought Kakashi while he just stared dumbly at her. The next thing he knew, he found his hands empty of his precious book. "Wah?" was his reaction.

Sakura was calmly flipping through his, _precious_, with a bored expression on her face. Then right in front of the bewildered perverted man she ripped up his book with two fingers.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

After 2 minutes…

He was still lamenting his loss while holding his ruined book with a shocked and dazed look on his face. Sakura ignored him as she turned to the contestants and calmly said, "Your next exam will be in a month in front of a large audience. I advise you to use your time wisely by training." With that being said, she calmly pulled out two pieces of paper. The first battle will be Naruto Vs. Kohaku. Kohaku, the sand genin with flaming red hair and coal black eyes smirked at Naruto.

"The second battle will be Sasuke Vs. Kimiko." Kimiko squealed like a fangirl causing Sasuke to back hastily away from her. Girls like her sometimes tried to jump him... She had long black hair and round brown eyes. "The winner of Sasuke Vs. Kimiko's battle will fight the winner of Naruto Vs. Kohaku, and the winner of that battle will battle against the winner of Sai Vs. Toya battle."

Toya, the other sand shinobi just stood there, his face blank, while Sai smiled smoothly. Toya was tall and strong in build. The strong and silent type you could call him. He had dirty blond hair and large caramel colored eyes.

The contestants nodded and soon everyone had left the tower but for Sasuke, Sai, Naruto and Kakashi. It turned out that Sakura hadn't ripped his book, she had just ripped a fake, and when his weeping had started to annoy her, she had tossed it back to him.

Sasuke, Naruto and Sai had filled Kakashi in on what had occurred in the Forest of Death when Itachi had attacked.

"Sakura's different. I knew she became quite stronger then before, but this is impossible. How could she have ended up chasing Itachi and Kisame away?" Kakashi questioned. The four of them frowned, lost in their own thought.

"You know, Sakura's eyes turned purple at one point…" Naruto said.

Sai and Sasuke nodded in remembrance. "Could it be a bloodline limit?" Sasuke voiced.

"Ugly? With a bloodline? I highly doubt that. Her parents weren't shinobis." Sai murmured.

Kakashi answered, "It could be possible, but I doubt it. It may have been a jutsu of some sort… Well, it's getting late, all three of you must be tired from the exam, go home and rest."

No matter how hard they tried, none of them could get a good night of sleep at home, all of them were haunted by the memory of Sakura's beauty, power and mystery.

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Sakura frowned as she sat on her roof staring at the stars. Sometimes she really hated the fact that vampires couldn't sleep, but at least she wasn't tired like Garra…. Glancing at the moon, she felt a shiver go down her spine when she heard a chilling howl from the mountains to the North of the village. She let out the air that she had been holding unconsciously, through her teeth with a hiss.

Clenching and unclenching her fists for some unknown reason, Sakura gazed at the silver lights in the sky. For once, they did nothing to help her calm down. She didn't know what was wrong with her but she felt something happening that made her tense and anxious. Something was coming…

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Somewhere else, Itachi also spent a sleepless night. His face emotionless, he watched as Kisame drowned bottle after bottle of sake. His head was filled with images of the pink haired girl. He knew something was different about her, something not… human.

"I can't believe I was knocked out by a GIRL!!!!" Kisame roared out in anger. With his short rant finished, he collapsed onto the table, asleep.

Itachi turned his gaze away from the pitiful sight, and instead pondered on what had happened to him when the pink haired Konochi's eyes had become violet. All he could remember was seeing her eyes change from green to red, and finally to violet. Itachi remembered gazing at her eyes as she said something, though he couldn't remember what. The next thing he knew, he was out of the Forest of Death with Kisame who was still unconscious. Involuntarily, he had dragged Kisame, and himself, out of Konoha and to safety. _Did she put a genjutsu on me somehow?_ He wondered. Once again, Itachi went over the battle, focusing on every last detail he could remember, but to his frustration, _her_ face kept coming back to haunt his mind. _Why…? _He wondered.

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**At ****The Castle**

"Kamui and Suki-san. The council has heard that you have changed a human, and she is a Royal." Stated a handsome black haired man.

"Your information is accurate as always Tenshi-san." Suki laughed with a cheerful grin.

The said man smirked, and then said, "I'm sure you know the rules, please bring her to register."

"Hai." Kamui and Suki murmured together.

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**Back in Konoha:**

"Achoo!... Is someone talking about me?" Sakura wondered.

**I didn't know vampires could sneeze… **Inner pondered.

"…"

_Inner… just shut up…_

_-_

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_-_

I want to thank all my reviewers! Thank You!!!!!!

FakeCompassion: Thank You So Much!!!!... I'm so sorry, I wanted to do NejiXSakura too but I really couldn't find a way to put it into the plot... Sorry...

NejiSakuFan: Thank You!!!! I'm really glad you like the vampire idea. I thought it might be a little old because there are so many vampire/Naruto stories. I'm sorry!!! I wanted to do a NejiXSakura but after looking hard at my written plot, I really couldn't find a way for it to work...

Emuomoon: Wow!! That's a really good idea! Thank You for reviewing and giving me some ideas. I think having Garra in the story would be very intresting! Thanks again for the review!!!

xXxTsukuyomixXx: Thank you soooo much!!! I'm really glad you like the idea. Once again Thank You!!!!!

Kage Kitsun: AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!! I feel sooo happy!!! Thank You again!!!!

Pinky101: Thank you!!! I'm glad you like the plot, please tell me if you have any ideas! I took your advise! I'm going to make this a Saku x Itachi story... I'm going to need help with this... Well, once again, Thank You!!!!

Silent Kunoichi aka. Fiona:...lol...sweatdrop... I knew that... Well anyways!!! Thank You for reviewing!!! I'm really, really glad you like the story so far!!! Thank you again!! P.S. I'm going to use PAMS now!!! Thank you for introducing it to me!!!

Night'sBullet: Thank You for reviewing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to take your advice!!!! Please give me some ideas if you have any!!! Thank You again!!!!

Tenshi-No-Yuki: Thank You So Much!!! I'm really glad you don't think it's lame. Your review boosted up my spirits a lot, so Thank You!!!!!

Narutocraze1233: Lol!!! Yes, your in the chappie again!!!!! Yay!!! I'm really, really happy you reviewed!!!! Thank you for the complement!!!!... The truth is... I got a lot of my ideas from my dreams!!! Yes!! I'm going to bring in werewolves!!! I'm really sorry, but I can't give away whether or not Sai, Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi will find out Sakura's secret... Thank You again!!!! P.S. Kakashi is back!!!!! Yay!!!


	7. Chapter 7

VII

Chunnin Exam

Part 4

**A/N: The replies to the reviews are at the end of the chapter!!! Sorry for the late update, I had a bit of a writer's block. Sorry again, Itachi isn't in this chapter. Oh and MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok! I'm glad that's out of my system now! **

1 month later…

They were late… and Kakashi was proud of them, in a rather odd and twisted way. He gave his eye-crinkling smile when he saw his three boys stroll into the stadium, Naruto with a grin, Sasuke with a smirk, and Sai with a fake smile. Tsunade glared furiously at the three; though the three couldn't really tell because she was sitting so high up in the stands. Sakura just tiredly sighed while running her fingers through her dawn colored locks.

"Now that our the rest of our contestants are here…we can start." Genma, the third examiner muttered with a bored expression on his face.

"First up Naruto v. Kohaku…"

"Yes! Let's kick some butt!!!!!!!!!" Naruto yelled excitedly. The many people in the audience sighed and sweatdropped at Naruto's antics. Tsunade vowed to beat up Naruto later. Then to everyone's great embarrassment, Naruto turned around to gaze at the VIP seats. _God no…_ Gaara thought as Naruto opened his mouth wide, and hollered, "GAARA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SAKURA-CHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BAA-CHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WATCH ME WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... OH AND GAARA, YOU OWE ME RAMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

_Naruto I'm going to __**kill**__ you!_The three thought.

Glaring furiously, the Sand Shinobi snarled, "Brat! How dare you be so rude to our Kazakage!" His eyes widened in surprise when Naruto turned to glare at him angrily. "I'M OLDER THEN YOU! SO SHUT YOUR TRAP TEME NUMBER 342!!!!!!!"

"Idiot…" Sasuke grunted.

"SHUT UP TEME NUMBER ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Grumbling discontentedly, Genma mumbled, "Start."

"Wha…?"

"Dobe…Start. He said start."

Naruto's eyes widened in faint surprise, a dopey sort of look on his face while Kohaku rushed him, a glaive in his hands. With a sickening thunk, the glaive rammed through Naruto's chest. The world seemed to freeze as Naruto looked down at the weapon. His mouth was in a perfect round "O". Eyes wide Naruto gurgled weakly, his eyes still unable to register the truth. Then he went…**BOOM!!!!!!!** The red haired boy's body was thrown back from the force of the explosion. He flew back about 20 meters and crashed into the stadium wall, blood tricking from his mouth. Grunting, Kohaku pulled himself out of the wall, and kneeled, one leg propped up, panting, while wiping the crimson liquid with the back of his hand.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU FELL FOR IT!!!!!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!" Naruto had appeared out of the ground while laughing his ass off.

"What was that?" Kohaku growled.

Smirking Naruto gloated, "THAT MY NEMISES, WAS THE GREAT UZAMAKI NARUTO'S SUPER DUPER, FANTASTIC KABOOMER!!!!!"

"Che…" Glaring viciously Kohaku propped himself up using his broken glaive as a staff. No one but a few ANBU, Tsunade and Sakura noticed him making discreet, and swift handsigns. _Judging by the number of the handsigns, I would guess that the jutsu is a high leveled one._ Tsunade thought.

"That Baka." Sakura sighed. He was so into his little victory dance that he didn't notice that Kohaku was up to something. Glaring murderously, Kohaku quickly finished making his handsigns, finishing on the dragon sign.

"Poison Cell Jutsu!" Giving a cry of pain he doubled over as his whole body started to give off a faint amber glow. Raising his head, Kohaku panted weakly as he gazed at Naruto the faint light slowly receding. Grinning in triumph, he slowly raised himself up into a crouch. Like Kiba in a way, Kohaku changed, his eyes changed to an amber color, his pupils narrowed to slits, his nails grew like claws, and his canines sharpened. Naruto would have gone as far as to say that he reminded him of some sort of large scary cat. Eyes wide, Naruto backed away warily from the sand shinobi.

Without warning, Kohaku suddenly shot towards him, a wild and bloodthirsty glow in his eyes. Naruto leaped back quickly to dodge Kohaku's vicious claws, but even then, he got a slight scratch on his hand.

Stumbling back, Naruto twisted around and quickly blocked Kohaku's attack with his arm guards, but with ease, the sand shinobi managed to kick Naruto's feet from under him with a swift spinning dropkick. Grunting in surprise, Naruto fell to the ground with a faint thump, hurriedly he rolled to his left to dodge Kohaku's leg-drop kick.

Rolling a few more times, Naruto rapidly managed to distance himself from Kohaku, enough for him to get a bit of breathing space. Glaring at the flame haired genin, Naruto snarled angrily, his own blue eyes bleeding crimson. Naruto irritably made his own handsign. Growling faintly, Naruto made a Kage Bunshin. His eyes widened in shock when he gazed at his creation. Instead of a Bunshin that was the clone of Naruto, there was a crumpled heap of limbs, orange, and black on the ground.

"WHAT?!!"

Hearing a cold chuckle, Naruto spun around to murderously glare at Kohaku.

Naruto's face screwed up with a look of pure hatred. Glaring wrathfully he roared, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME TEME 324!!!!!!"

Chuckling maliciously, Kohaku answered smirking, "I thought I was number 342 not 324."

"JUST SHUT THE F--- UP AND ANSWER THE F--- QUESTION TEME!!!!!"

Smirking, Kohaku purred, "Simply put, your poisoned. The last jutsu I did transformed all of the cells in my body into a unique type of poison that I'm immune to for a certain amount of time. Just brushing your skin slightly is all I need for the poison to enter your body. You should be feeling dizzy and drowsy by now."

Naruto clenched his fists, his skin straining against his knuckles causing his whole body to tremble, and causing his knuckles to whiten. Howling in fury, Naruto pulled out a kunai and viciously stabbed himself in the hand. The blood pouring from his hand flowed down and formed a small sticky pool of the dark red liquid on the ground.

Kohaku smirked at Naruto's futile efforts.

"Die…" A kunai left the sand shinobi's hand and flew through the air and hit the space between Naruto's eyes. Naruto's eyes widened in pain, and he slowly slumped down to the ground, dead…

BANG!!!!! Naruto burst out of the ground, a Rasengan formed in his hand. Bellowing a battle cry Naruto's Rasengan connected with Kohaku. The red haired shinobi's body was suspended in the air for a total of 3 seconds before he went flying back, slamming into a few trees, and finally into the rock wall of the stadium.

"Ha!!!! Always look underneath the underneath!!!!!!" With a faint poof, the "dead" Naruto on the ground disappeared leaving empty space. It turned out that Naruto had managed to flush out enough of the poison, by bleeding himself, to quickly substitute himself with a Kage Bunshin; a Bunshin that he had already created and left underground, in the beginning of the match, just in case.

Kohaku's face was blank, as was his half open eyes. There wasn't a look of anger, embarrassment, shock, pain…or sadness, just emptiness. A trickle of blood dripped down the side of his mouth but he did nothing. Kohaku slowly closed his eyes in defeat, as his body seemed to peel from the wall and fall. Naruto quickly rushed over and caught his opponent before he hit the ground, and carefully laid him down onto the ground.

"Winner Naruto." Genma stated, in faint shock. Everyone in the audience was stunned that Naruto had helped his opponent. Whispers could be heard all around the crowd, but in a certain VIP area, Tsunade was smirking while she gazed proudly at Naruto. Sakura, for the first time after returning to Konoha, truly smiled.

His face passive, Gaara gazed at the ecstatic blond, _Naruto…I am in your debt…again._

The medics quickly took Kohaku away. Sakura frowned when she saw how the stretcher they were using to cart off Kohaku was rather uneven in balance. Sakura made a mental note to chew off the medics' heads later, when the exam was completely finished.

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"Next up is Sasuke v. Kimiko…" Genma grunted.

"Yay!!!! Sasuke-Kun!!!"

Sasuke grimaced and eyed the ecstatic sand konochi cautiously.

"Begin…" Genma mumbled without even waiting for Sasuke and Kimiko to get into battle stances.

Kimiko immediately drew a few shurikens and launched them at Sasuke. To her surprise, Sasuke easily sidestepped her attack. _Fast_. She thought. Watching Sasuke, Kimiko made a few handsigns before she threw a kunai at Sasuke.

Sasuke caught the kunai with ease, but without delay he hurriedly tossed the kunai away from him. The explosion tag attached to the kunai exploded causing Sasuke to shield his eyes with his arm, due to all the dust that was disturbed by the explosion floating around in the air.

When the dust settled, Sasuke realized at once that something was wrong. In front of him was Itachi. Blind rage erupted from him. His eyes flashing red, he snarled furiously at his brother. This time, nothing was stopping him from killing his brother, but he knew that too much emotion would blind him so he pushed away his emotions.

Kimiko watched as Sasuke's eyes flashed into Sharingan. She was confused and fearful at the anger that had erupted from Sasuke. The anger was now gone leaving an emotionless, but murderous Sasuke, but Sasuke like this was scaring her more then when he was angry. She couldn't understand. When she had created the handsigns, Kimiko had been starting a genjutsu. For the jutsu to succeed, Kimiko had needed Sasuke to be distracted for a short period of time. That was why she had thrown the kunai.

Kimiko knew that the genjutsu had gone wrong. The genjutsu's purpose was to make her look like her opponents worst fear, but instead of freezing in shock and terror, Sasuke became murderous. Her eyes widened in shock and fright when suddenly she felt Sasuke's form behind her. _Impossible, I wasn't able to see him move._ Kimiko gave a scream of pain when Sasuke rammed his knee into her back, causing her to fly forward and crash into a tree. Sasuke was there at once, his katana drawn. Kimiko shrieked in fear when she saw Sasuke loom over her with his long katana drawn. Lightening rippled up and down the blade causing a bright glow to illuminate Sasuke's terrifying figure.

"I forfeit!" Kimiko sobbed out in fear, but to her terror, Sasuke didn't halt his attack.

"Die…" He said, his voice and face cold.

Suddenly, before Sasuke could kill what he believed was Itachi, Sakura appeared in front of him. _She's protecting him? _Sasuke thought in shock.

Sakura watched as Sasuke's eyes widened as she appeared in front of Kimiko's figure. She knew that Sasuke thought that Kimiko was Itachi due to the jutsu. _Fool._ She thought.

"Sakura move." Sasuke said, his voice blank.

"Uchiha Sasuke, the match is over. This isn't Itachi…it's genjutsu."

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise at what Sakura said. Kimiko, to her credit, immediately dispelled the jutsu on Sasuke. Sasuke's katana hung weakly in his hand, his blood red sharingan eyes faded away to black as he gazed at Kimiko.

Sakura knew that Sasuke didn't see through the obvious jutsu because of his inner rage. The sharingan could even be fooled if the wielder was blinded by emotions. Even though Sasuke looked impassive, Sakura knew that his mind overflowed with emotions every time he faced Itachi.

The stadium was dead silent as Sasuke sheathed his katana and slowly made his way out of the battleground. Kimiko was still in shock, paralyzed by her fear. A team of medics quickly rushed over to take Kimiko away to help her with shock, and four broken ribs.

"Genma…?" Sakura silkily reminded.

"Huh...? Right…winner, Sasuke. The next match is Toya v. Sai."

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Sai appeared in a swirl of black ink into the middle of the arena. Toya, slowly followed by lightly, and surprisingly gracefully, jumping from the stadium, 20 meters high from the ground. The strongly built sand shinobi gazed blankly, but politely at Sai.

Sai stared right back with his fake smile on. "Judging from your size…you probably have a large pride." Toya stared at Sai, a confused look on his face.

Sakura gave a tired moan, she knew what was coming and she didn't like it…

"I'll call you horsedick."

There was a pregnant pause as Toya stared at Sai blankly. The audience was silent, waiting to see how Toya would react to the vulgar nickname.

Unconsciously, everyone leaned in slightly as Toya opened his mouth. "You must be gay, but I'm sorry, I already have a girlfriend, I'm 100 straight."

There was another pregnant pause of speech as everyone in the audience stared at Toya in surprise.

Raising his left eyebrow slightly Sai politely asked, "Oh, you have a girlfriend…is she a horse?"

"No, she's your mom." The way that Toya stated this so calmly sent everyone into a fit of twitching.

"Oh…Well, I don't have a mother so you must not have a girlfriend. Which means that if you look at this logically, you **are** gay."

"Not interested."

"Horsedick." Sai replied smiling innocently.

How in the world Toya was able to look so calm even with Sai insulting him rather crudely, was a quite a mystery.

The two of them stared at each other blankly, when suddenly both flashed into action, Sai quickly unrolled a blank scroll and with a paintbrush, drew picture after picture with incredible speed and perfection. The giant ink eagles ripped themselves from the scroll and soared up into the sky alarming away the crows.

Toya in turn rapidly drew out a scroll as well. He quickly bit his thumb drawing a bit of blood. He then smeared a small line of the red liquid down the length of the scroll. "Great Bear Axe Summon." He said clearly.

With a faint poof, a giant bear appeared in front of Toya. The huge bear was a light golden brown with dark black eyes. The only thing that was different from a regular bear was that the summoned bear was huge!!!! And he had black strips of fur that made it seem as if it had extravagant black designs all over its body.

Sai stared blankly at the bear. "I take it back… you should be Beardick."

The bear lunged at Sai with steel like claws. Sai quickly jumped back away from the summons deadly oversized nails. The audience watched attentively as Toya raised his hand suddenly. A ripple of gasps flowed through the stands when the golden bear transformed into a giant axe. The claws of the bear seemed to vine down the handle, allowing the axe to injure or kill from either side. Sai watched curiously as the axe seemed to ripple, as if it was alive.

Unexpectedly, Sai smiled pleasantly as he calmly murmured, "Check mate."

A look of confusion crossed Toya's face at Sai's words. Suddenly to the crowds astonishment, Toya suddenly turned pale and collapsed face forward onto the ground. With a poof, the axe disappeared as well. Genma quickly hurried to Toya's side. After a quick examination, he grunted, "Some sort of poison. Not dead but unconscious." Genma pointedly turned his gaze to Sai. Asking wordlessly for an explaination.

"The eagles were just a distraction. The real weapon was here." Sai raised his hand to show Genma as he said this. Genma blinked uncertainly at the ink smeared on Sai's hand.

"I took the liberty to place some poison ink on the bear's claws when it swiped at me. The poison doesn't effect me, but it effects anyone else."

"The handle…" Genma murmured. "I see…the handle of the axe was the bears claws. He poisoned himself by touching the poison on the claws."

Sai gave his fake smile. "Exactly."

"Winner Sai."

Even though the audience weren't exactly sure as to what had happened, they were pretty excited and riled up by the unusual display of battle. The next battle will be Naruto v. Sasuke…

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Sakura gulped silently as she breathed deeply through her nose. _This is going on too long…I've reached my limit._

"Tsunade-sama." Sakura panted weakly.

Tsunade turned her attention to Sakura. "Sakura?" She asked.

"I've reached my limit."

Tsunade's eye's widened as she quickly murmured, "You're excused."

The 5th watched with worried eyes as Sakura flickered away. While this was going on, Gaara listened in on their hushed conversation. His expressionless face narrowed its eyes as they watched Sakura leave after Tsunade's last statement, 'You're excused.'

Gaara blinked in surprise when Tsunade suddenly murmured, "Gaara-san."

"Hai."

"We need to make a few changes to the exam…" Gaara frowned slightly at Tsunade's words.

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The audience was dead silent except for the soft, muffled coughs once in a while. They were watching excitedly at the two boys staring each other down. The blond haired boy, Naruto, stood limp with his bangs shadowing his eyes. Sasuke in turn gazed calmly at the Naruto, his face carefully cleared of all emotions. Genma stood a little to the side, chewing on his senbon needle thoughtfully.

"We will now beg-"

Genma's words were cut off suddenly as a Kakashi suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Yo."

Genma's eye twitched in annoyance at Kakashi's calm, infuriating bored look.

"Kakashi?"

"There's been a change in plans." The next, and last battle will be at tomorrow morning at 10:00 am."

"Wait a second! Last battle? Tomorrow? What in the world are you talking about?" Naruto loudly voiced his question.

"Instead of you and Sasuke then Sai, we're going to do a three way battle."

A murmur of surprise rippled through the audience. A three-way battle was something that was entirely new in the Chunnin exam.

"So until then, all of you go home and rest."

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"Oi Naruto, Sasuke, Sai!"

Naruto turned towards the loud, rather annoying voice. "Huh? Oh, it's you Kiba."

"And Akamaru." Kiba corrected as the huge Akamaru barked happily.

"Were here as well." Said a cool, neutral voice.

"Neji!" Naruto called out in surprise as Neji, Kiba, Ino, Choji, Tenten, Lee, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Shino walked over to the three.

"N-N-Naruto-k-kun." Hinata nervously stuttered. Unfortunately for her, Naruto didn't hear her.

Neji looked around, and frowned slightly. "Where is Sakura-san? We thought that she would be here with you three."

"Ugly's not here." Sai smoothly murmured.

"Sai…you're really messed up…" Kiba sighed.

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Swiftly, and silently, the hunter neared its prey. The poor creature had no idea how much in danger it was in. Suddenly, to the hunter's frustration, the deer suddenly fled. She knew that she could catch it easily, but she wanted to investigate what had spooked away her food. Gracefully, Sakura swung down from her perch 30 feet from the ground, and landed silently, catlike.

She suddenly, with impossible speed drew, and threw a kunai to her left.

"Ah!" She heard

"Sakura-chan! What was that for?" Suki whined as he stepped out from behind a tree.

"You scared away my food." She bluntly stated.

Suki sweatdropped, and smiled sheepishly at the seriousness of her voice.

"…Ah…gomen about that…" Suki said, grinning embarrassedly.

"Where's Kamui?" Sakura asked while looking around for her other friend.

"Right here Sakura-sama."

Sakura looked up quickly, a soft smile on her face, as she turned to look at Kamui. He had the deer slung over his shoulder.

"Ah…thank you Kamui." Sakura murmured as she quickly satisfied her thirst.

After finishing her "food" Sakura asked, "Why are you two here anyway? I thought you wouldn't visit for at least another 4 months."

Suki shifted his weight as he answered, "Well you see Sakura…You have to come register…"

"Register? I thought I could do it next year." Sakura murmured, furrowing her brows.

"I'm not sure why, but my guess is that one of the seers 'saw' your power, and now the council. They want to meet you as soon as possible. "

"I don't know what my power is yet though." Sakura reminded.

"Yes, that's why you're going, to get a seer to find out your gift."

"I see…"

**I'm still hungry…** Inner grumbled.

_Is that all you can think?_

**I hope there are some cute vamps at The Castle.**

_You're hopeless_.

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**Mayumi Crescent Moon: Thank you! I'm glad you like Itasaku too. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!**

**FakeCompassion: Thank you for not being mad at me!!!! And Thank you for reviewing!! Your reviews helped me keep writing.**

**Pinky101: Yay!!! I'm really glad you like the pairing! Thank you so much for the review!**

**xXDaughterOfTheCrimsonMoonXx: Wah! I'm so happy that you like it!!! Thank you so much for reviewing, and your welcome!!!**

**aznkitty180: Lol! That my friend is a secret!!! Thank you!!!! I'm really glad you liked it!!!**

**NejiSakuFan: I'm glad you can tolerate Itasaku! Everyone, including you, have been very nice about my paring choice. Thank You!!!! I'll try to put in some NejiSaku moments! I promise I'll do my best!!!**

**TeenageCrisis: Thank you for reviewing!!! I'm glad you like it so far!!!**

**iloveyouneji: Thank you! Thank you!!! I'm really, really happy that you like it so far!!! I'm sorry that I wasn't able to update soon...I had a bit of a writers block.**

**romanticXXmidnightXXlullaby: I'm really glad that you like the story line. I promise that I'll try my best!!! And Thank you for reviewing!!**

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**Pink Blossom Princess:THANK YOU!!!!!! I'm so...so...HAPPY that you like my story so far!!! Thank you again!!!**

**unbeatablehinata: I totally agree with you. I think the author of Naruto makes the female characters a bit too weak sometimes... Thank you so much for reviewing!!!!!!!!!!!! **

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**Bob1234: Also known as YY! Hi YY!!!! Thanks for reading my story!!! I'm glad you like it. Thank you so much for the review and the encouragements!!! BBF!!! P.s Please don't show anyone else ok. Not even your friends who don't know me! **

**cherryblossom94: Yay!!! I'm really happy that you like it!!! Thank you so much for the review! Lol! Sakura is sort of a bad ass isn't she!!**

**Kinomi-chan: I'm happy that you liked that line!!! Thank you for reading my fic!!! And Thank you so much for reviewing!!!! **

**Chocolat-Chan: Wah!!! Thank you so much for the review!! I'm really, really joyful that you like the story!!! I'll try and bring in some more Neji! I promise!!!**

**xXFallenSakuraXx!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!! You have no idea how happy I was when I saw your review!!! I love your stories!!!! Thank you so much for reading my Fanfic!!!!! I'm so honored that you would review, and say that you like it!!! Lol...Sorry, this is another cliffy...sort of. Thank you again!!!!! **


	8. Chapter 8

VIII

Royal Gift

**A/N: For those who forgot…I'll usually reply to your reviews at the end of the chapters! Sorry for the late update…I sprained my ankle so I'm having a hard time sneaking **_**quietly **_**away to type…and I had a writer's block.**

**YAY!!! 90 Reviews! Almost a hundred!!! Thank you for reviewing all my reviewers!!! **

**Disclaimer: (This refers to all of my chapters from before and to all my future chapters as well.) I DON'T OWN NARUTO!!! **

**Story Recap: Haruno Sakura, an 18-year-old ANBU/medic left on a yearlong mission. Due to some complications…Sakura was changed into a vampire, and a royal at that. After returning to Konoha after a year of absence she is slightly surprised to note that her teammates returned with Uchiha Sasuke. While all of Konoha is shocked and confused at Sakura's seemingly sudden personality change, her teammates are the most perplexed of them all. Beautiful, cold, detached, and powerful, Sakura decides to become an examiner for the Chunnin Exam. Faced with problems like Uchiha Itachi, who after their battle seems to gain a troubling interest in Sakura, the exam goes on. Now Sakura leaves for The Castle, what ever that may be, while Sasuke, Naruto and Sai face the harsh task of battling each other in a three-way battle for the final fight of the Chunnin Exam.**

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The next day at 9:50am, Tsunade could be found sitting in the stands with hundreds of others, all waiting for the battle to begin. It was already decided that Sasuke, Naruto, Sai and the sand shinobi Toya would all become Chunnins, but this battle, this battle would truly show everyone the true strength of the three leaf shinobi's. Unlike last time, all three were on time, all of them silent and tense. Sai had on his 'mask' but it was forced and most everyone could tell that he was actually quite nervous about the whole, battle his teammates, thing.

In the VIP seats, Gaara lifted his head and gazed up at the sky with his calm, emotionless gaze as he sensed a presence nearing him. A large hawk suddenly swooped down from the flawless blue sky, a scroll in its possession, and smoothly landed in front of the woman called Hokage. Tsunade frowned as she read the scroll. "Sakura…not again." She mumbled, her eyes sad.

The red haired young man, Gaara, looked up slightly at the word, 'Sakura', his eyes faintly curious as he asked, "Sakura?"

Sighing Tsunade answered hesitantly "Ah…She had to leave again for something… urgent."

Like it or not, Gaara had to admit that his awareness of the pink haired kunoichi was much too high. He couldn't help but think of her, to ponder what she had said.

**Flashback: "Kazakage-sama, it's a pleasure to see you again." Sakura politely murmured right before the third part of the Chunnin Exams.**

"**It's Gaara." The slightly disgruntled red haired male had grunted. **

**A small smile bloomed on her lips as she replied, "Hai…Garra."**

**Then out of nowhere, Sakura suddenly murmured, "You know…we're a lot alike now, you and I." Before he could reply to the cryptic statement, Sakura had left to stand by Tsunade's side as the blonde Hokage entered the stands with a couple of ANBU flanking her sides. They disappeared in a sudden rush of air, taking stations around the stadium, leaving only Tsunade, Sakura and Gaara in the V.I.P stands. **

**Flashback Ends:**

After that encounter, Gaara grudgingly admitted that he was somewhat attracted to the pink-haired kunoichi…_but isn't she with the Uchiha?_ He thought. A flash of sudden anger rippled throughout his body causing him to mentally start slightly in surprise. _What in the world…jealousy? Possessiveness perhaps? No, it has to be lust…lust?_Mentally shaking his head of all his 'nonsense' thinking, Gaara went back to watching the three shinobis stare at each other.

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Sakura frowned in the direction of Konoha for the fifth time. "Sakura-chan. Konoha is staying right there. It's not going anywhere, promise." Suki sighed.

"I know…but…"

"Don't worry, be happy!" Suki cheerfully chirped.

Sakura laughed at Suki's antics as she murmured, "You're right, Konoha is a big boy. It can take care of itself."

"Wait, I thought Konoha was a girl…" Suki mumbled in surprise.

"Suki…Konoha is a city, cities aren't girls or boys."

"Oh…"

There was a brief moment of silence before Kamui opened his mouth slightly to speak.

"We're here." He announced. Sakura looked up to gaze at the tall ash-haired knight. (**A/N: This means that Kamui is a Knight class vampire)**

Her face emotionless, Sakura murmured, "I see", as she gazed at the impressively enormous castle. The castle was surprisingly light, from the color to the atmosphere.

Suki happily skipped down the main pathway to the large steel gates, as Kamui and Sakura followed behind him.

"WE'RE HERE!!!!!" Suki suddenly bellowed out, startling Sakura into drawing a kunai.

When she realized that it was just Suki being stupid, Sakura put away her kunai, not without a glare at Suki first though. She quickly forgot her annoyance when the gate slowly started to open. Giving Kamui and Suki a slightly nervous glance, she smoothly walked in the castle with her two friends behind her.

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1 months later

"I still can't believe I tied with Teme 1 and Teme 45!" Naruto grumbled angrily into his ramen.

"That's my line dobe."

"What's that Teme?!"

"Naruto, Sasuke, stop fighting." Kakashi ordered without even looking up from his book.

Grudgingly, they stopped, but the glares went on. The battle between three of the male members from team 7 had been a frightening experience for the audience. The three showed impossible powers that practically blew up the arena that they were standing on, causing rather severe damage on all three. In the end, all three of them decided to forfeit at the same time after they nearly killed the audience with their dangerous, and reckless attacks.

Even though they had been the ones that decided to forfeit, Naruto and Sasuke still grumbled about it. Sai on the other hand was just his usual insulting self.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei. When is Sakura returning from her mission?"

Kakashi turned his attention from his book to Naruto. "Soon." Was all he said. Just then, the artist of the group suddenly walked into the ramen stand where they were eating. "Dickless, Frosty, Pervert." He greeted.

Dickless, also known as Naruto looked up to glare angrily at Sai. "Shut up Bastard!"

Frosty, a.k.a Sasuke, glared.

"Heh…." Pervert/Kakashi giggled, as he blushed red from whatever he was reading.

"Tsunade-sama is looking for us." Sai calmly said.

"Yes!!! A mission!!!!" With a whoosh of air, Naruto disappeared, taking his ramen with him of course. "Tell Naruto to bring back the bowl." The 'old man' grumbled.

"Ah…"

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"Die."

The order was short, crisp and quite straightforward. The 'man', who the order was directed to, started to move his own hand to his kunai pouch. His eyes never left the large beautiful violet ones as he prepared himself for death. Breathing heavily, he grabbed a kunai and slowly, but surely moved it towards his neck. The steel blade rested dangerously at his throat, as his hand trembled. Sweat pored down his face at the effort to not kill himself, but his will was weak, and their connected gaze too strong. The man made the mistake of blinking. As his eyelid dropped down for a fraction of a second, his hand moved. With a sudden slash, he was dead.

"Fool…" Sakura murmured. Rubbing her head tiredly, she gave the dead 'man' a contemptuous glance. Raising her hood up again to hid her angelic face, Sakura smoothly traveled on. The dead corpse disintegrated into dust within seconds of her departure…

As she lightly jumped from branch to branch, Sakura thought of the past month she had spent away from Konoha. She was actually rather sad to leave The Castle, not that she didn't love Konoha or anything. While singing a soft, haunting lullaby, Sakura journeyed onwards toward her destination, home. She had heard from Tsunade that all of her teammate's had passed the exam, and during the time she was gone, they had also been promoted to Jounin level. It was then that she also learned that the Hokage needed her.

**Flashback: 1 month ago…**

"**Wow." That was the only thing Sakura could say as she stepped into a colossal room. **

**The room/house had a large arching ceiling that was painted like the night sky. If Sakura didn't know that it was 2:27pm, she would have thought that it was night, and for some reason, the ceiling had been torn off. **

"**Welcome Kamui-san, Suki-sama, and Hime-sama." **

**Sakura's head whipped around to the direction the voice had projected from. In the shadow of the room, she could make out a row of throne like chairs. Occupying them were what she would guess to be the council. The council, they were a group of the most fair, wise and oldest vampires. Though all of them were easily over 500 years old, the man who looked the oldest seemed to be only 30. He was the one who had spoken. **

**Sakura could see that there were exactly 3 of them. The one on the left was a handsome young man, about 20 years old, with messy honey blond hair and large dark eyes. Next to him sat a girl about 18 years old. She had shoulder length, wavy black hair with soft green eyes. Finally, the last one on the right side of the girl was a handsome black-haired man with pale blue eyes, who looked about 30 years old. **

"**Hello." Sakura replied smoothly. **

"**We are the council, I am Tenshi, next to me is Yuka and the blonde is Arashi." The black-haired man named Tenshi introduced. **

"**Why do you call me Hime-sama?" Sakura asked with faint confusion. "Are you not royals yourself?" **

"**Oh my. No, of course not Hime-sama, we are but humble nobles in your presence." Yuka murmured politely. **

**The man, Arashi, grinned as he said, "Yes. Hime-sama, and Suki-sama are one of the 6 royals in the whole world."**

"**Only 6!" Sakura exclaimed in faint surprise. She had never known how truly rare royals were until now. **

"**Hai, Hime-sama." Yuka murmured softly, a gentle aura flowing from her.**

**The surprised pink-haired royal ran her long smooth fingers through her hair as she said, "Please, call me Sakura." **

**Arashi grinned widely as he happily replied, "Of course Sakura-sama." **

**Sakura smiled, but then frowned slightly as she asked, "But I've been wondering. How do I register?" **

**Yuka gave a tinkling laugh as she answered, "It's quite easy. You have already registered as soon as you stepped into this room."**

**When Sakura gave Yuka a confused look, she explained, "You see, sometimes, even non-royals have a 'gift', or power. It just happens that I have the gift of memory. I will never forget anything unless I wish otherwise. That is why to register you only have to meet myself."**

"**I see." Sakura murmured. "Do any of you have a gift as well? I know Suki has one considering that he is a royal." **

"**Well…I have the gift of speech. I can talk with anything that's alive, from plants, to animals, to bugs. And Tenshi has the gift of…just knowing…I can't explain it, but he just seems to know everything significant that happens, even if it is thousands of miles away." Arashi mumbled while rubbing the back of his head tiredly. **

**Nodding her head in understanding, Sakura turned towards her two companions, "Suki, Kamui?" Suki grinned gleefully as he replied, "I can make anyone HAPPY!!!!" There was silence in the room before Kamui broke it. "What Suki-sama means to say is that he can manipulate emotions. He can make anyone fall in love with anyone else, or make friends become enemies with ease as well."**

"**Though I would never do that unless I had a really, really, really, really, good reason for it." The blonde royal cried while waving his hands around in the air to emphasize his meaning. **

"**Kamui, do you have a gift?" Sakura asked curiously. **

**There was silence before he finally answered. "I can become, 'invisible'…" **

"**Oh, I see." Sakura said as she nodded her head in understanding. There was a pregnant pause before what he said processed fully into her head. "YOU CAN WHAT?!!!!" Suki flinched and hid behind Kamui while rubbing his ears weakly. **

"**Forgive me, I should have explained clearly. I can't become truly invisible, but I can become almost totally unnoticeable." **

**Sakura sighed as she said, "Oh, sorry. I get it. That's how you can always sneak up on me isn't it?" **

"**Yes." **

**Sakura answered with silence. "…"**

**Unnerved by the stillness, Arashi quickly projected his own voice into the silent room."Um…anyways...A seer is just a vampire who has the power of sight, sort of. Well, actually, it's more like they are able to see your hidden abilities and such." **

"**Are they rare?" Sakura asked curiously. **

**Tenshi shook his head as he explained, "No, actually any vampire can become a seer. It's not a gift, but a skill you learn over time. There are plenty of seers in the vampire community."**

**Just then the door opened. Everyone's head snapped around with inhuman speed to land their gaze on the door. As the door opened fully, a figure of a small child could be seen. **

"**You were looking for me?" The unidentified child asked.**

"**Ah, Gin, you're here. Come in, come in!" Tenshi said while smiling warmly at the new figure. "Sakrua-sama, this is Gin, the best seer the world has to offer." Gin was a small child like figure with **_**silver**_** hair and dark blue eyes. **

"**Hello…" **

**-**

**-**

**-**

**After an half hour of staring at Sakura, Gin suddenly proclaimed, "Hime-sama, your gift is amazing!" Eyes wide, Gin stared in awe at Sakura.**

"**Gin, what's my gift?" **

**After a short pause, he answered, "You have the gift of power." When Sakura and the rest of the vampires gave him confused glances, Gin started to quickly explain. "Hime-sama, you have the power of ruling people. In other words, your orders are law and binding. Only someone with an exceptionally strong willpower could disobey your direct command. That, or they would have to break away from your gaze, which is incredibly difficult because of how drawing, and hypnotizing your eyes are."**

**Frowning slightly, Sakura asked, "But my eyes are just eyes. I don't see anything 'drawing and hypnotizing' about them."**

"**You see, when you use your 'power', you'll find that if you look at your reflection, your eyes would have turned violet." **

"**So that's why Itachi did as I told him to during the fight in the Forest of Death." Sakura breathed. "But what happens if the 'victim' blinks." **

**Gin smiled, "Their struggles would have been in vain. As soon as they blink, your order/power will enter in through the small window of weakness at once." **

**Suki, who was feeling a bit left out, suddenly said, "So in other words, Sakura-chan has the ability to 'force' anyone into following her orders?" **

"**That is correct, Suki-sama." Gin agreed, while nodding his head once to clarify clearly that the blonde council member was correct. **

**Groaning weakly, Sakura moaned, while rubbing her forehead, "Ugh…I have a migraine…"**

**-**

**-**

**-**

**End of Flashback**

(A/N: Just so you know Sakura is about nineteen years, and three months old.)

For some reason, Sakura's stomach felt slightly uneasy. It could have been because of that foul _**Beast**_, the one she just killed. Or maybe it was something else. As the gates of Konoha came into view, the pink-haired royal slowed down her speed to a light run. With a start of surprise, Sakura saw that four people were waiting for her.

_I can understand why Tsunade is here, but what_ _they doing out?_

**Well dummy, they are your teammates.**

The four figures at the gate were none other then Tsunade, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Sai. All of them, but Tsunade, Sakura noted, had on the standard green Jounin vest and uniform. Even Naruto was wearing it instead of his usual bright, obnoxious, bright orange cloths.

"SAKURA-CHAN!!!!!!!!!! Your back!!!!"

"Naruto, shut up. And to everyone's surprise, especially Naruto's, he _did_ stop talking."

"Ops…I need to work on controlling my powers more." murmured Sakura to herself. "You can talk now Naruto."

Said blonde immediately opened his mouth, and prepared to shout some sort of stupid nonsense, that had a 99.6849201 percent chance of having ramen in it, but Tsunade calmly whacked him on the back of his head before he could say anything.

"Dobe."

"Dickless."

"Brat."

"Baka."

**I love home…**

_I have one hell of a twisted second mind…_

…**I'm mad, so you know…**

_I figured as much._

**-**

**-**

**-**

**A/N: I'm so sorry that there isn't any Itachi in this chapter, but please give me a chance; I need to first get the plot rolling before the real thing begins. I did try to put Itachi in, but the chapter ended up being too long so I had to cut it out. I'm putting it in the next chapter though. Oh, and I decided to skip the Naruto/Sasuke/Sai battle, but if you want it, I can put it in the next chapter as a flashback or something if you want. Also, for all of you NejiSaku fans, I'm going to be adding a bit of one-sided NejiSaku, and a bit of ItaSaku in the next chapter so please be patient. Thank you!**

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**-**

**aznkitty180: Thank you! I'm glad you like it! Sorry for the late update.**

**FakeCompassion: I'm flattered that you think I'm a good writer. Thank you so much for everything!!!**

**Night'sBullet: Thank you for the review! They helped a lot. I can't remember if I answered already or not...but yeah, I left some characteristics out because I thought it would be better if Sakura wasn't a gleaming diamond in the sun...it would be hard to be a shinobi then.**

**xXFallenSakuraXx: Lol...Sorry about the cliffy. Thank you so much for reviewing and I'm so sorry that I didn't update for awhile. I'll try to get the next chapter up faster.**

**unbeatablehinata: I'm really glad you like it. I'm SOOO sorry!!! I tried to put Itachi in, but the chapter ended up taking way to much time to write so I decided to save it for the next chapter. **

**Mistress Persephone: Lol. Thank you for the support, I'm glad you like it!...I think I need to take lessons from Toya as well...**

**winged wondergirl: Wow! I'm glad you like it!! I got some ideas from your suggestion so Double Thanks!**

**Kinomi-chan: Thank You!!!...please don't feed me to Zetsu...I'm really untasty and skinny...like bone...Once again Thank you so much for the review!**

**TeenageCrisis: AHHHH!!!!! I'M SO SORRY! I know I should have put Itachi in this chapter but the chapter ended up being way too long so I had to cut it out. I'm going to put it in the next chapter! I promise!**

**Pink Blossom Princess: Thank You! I'm glad you like it! Your reviews definitely raise up my self esteem. **

**SHIT TO YOU: ...I'll take that as an insult... **

**SasuxSaku-Inner Sakura Haruno: THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR CATCHING THAT! I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG BUT I'M STUPID LIKE THAT SOMETIMES!!!! And Thank you very, very much for reviewing!!!! **

**ArjunaAnia: Thank you! I'm sorry, I'll update the next one faster!**

**Chocolat-Chan: Thank you!!! Your reviews are so fun to read! I'll try to take your advice, but I have to admit that I'm really bad with the fluff and the romance writing, but I'll try!**

**radar: Thank you!! I'm glad that you liked it.**

**nini: I'm glad you like it!!!! I'm so sorry that the update took so long...Well anyways, once again thank you for the review!**

**xXKonan-chanXx: Thanks for the review! AHH!! I'm so sorry about Itachi! I had to cut his scene out because the chapter was way too long, I'm going to put it in the next chapter though! I promise!!!**

**Artemis411: Thank You!! I'm sorry for the late update, I'll try to be faster next time!**

**narutocraze1233: The werewolves are coming in a either the next chapter or in the chapter after that! I'm really glad you liked it! I got the ideas for the nicknames after my male cousins yelled the strangest insults at the t.v while watching football.**

**cherryblossom94: Lol! I'm glad you liked the chapter! Sorry for the late update!...If your like Inner, I think I want to take you to meet my evil cousins...lol.**

**pinky101: Wow! Thanks for the compliment! It really raised up my self esteem, so for that, Thank You!**

**Starlight-Wild Koneko: I'm glad you like the chapter. I'll try to add a bit of Gaara and Sakura pairing in this fic, though it'll probably be onesided. Oh, and Thank you for the review!!!**

**Lady V-chan: I'm soooo sorry. Itachi will be in the next chapter promise. I was going to put him in this chapter but the chapter ended up being way too long without an end in sight. I'm really glad you liked the Sai and Toya scene! I got inspired by my 2 male cousins yelling at the t.v. Football was on if your wondering what they were watching. Thank you for your review!**

**Anime Girl: Thank you!! I'm glad you like it. I'm sorry that the update was so slow! I'll try to make the next update faster.**

**ThornRoses: After your review, I went and read Sleeping Blood. I really liked it! Thank you for telling me about it! I'm so glad that you like Changed so far! Oh, and Merry Late Christmas and Merry, Late New Years!**

**Cherry-Hime-chan: Thank you! I'm glad you like it! **

**My.Dark.Tears.: I'm really glad so many people liked Sai vs. Toya battle! I got the idea after seeing two of my male cousins yell at the t.v while it was showing a football game. Thank you for reviewing, and I'm sorry for the late update!**

**kit: I'm glad you like it! )**

**MiniSaki265: Thank you! At first I was worried that the vampire idea was too old, but I'm glad some people actually like it! Your review really made me happy!**

**13th hour: Wah!!! Thank you so much! I'm really glad you like it! I agree with you. There are too many stories where Sasuke or Itachi is the vampire, while Sakura is the poor damsel in distress. I'll try to put in a bit of NejiSaku and GarraSaku...but I have to say this...I'm not a very good romance writer, so I'm slightly nervous about the whole thing, but I'll try my best!**

**kyo12591: I'm glad you like it! I enjoyed your reviews. They were quite interesting! **

**kage kitsune taiyoukai: I'm so sorry for the late update. After I read your review, I realized that I really had to get my lazy butt up and moving. I'll try to update faster! Oh, and Thank you for the review!!! **


	9. Chapter 9

IX

Newborn no More

**A/N: THANK YOU FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!!!!! FINALLY OVER 100! Oh, on a different note, I know a few of you were worried that Sakura was becoming too powerful, but that's because she's at the top of her strength/power. It's bound to go down sooner or later. Sorry, I lied. Itachi is in this chapter, but there's no ItaSaku yet. Please try to understand that I'm really, really bad at writing anything about romance so I'm really sort of nervous about this whole fic.**

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**- **

**Recap: The four figures at the gate were none other then Tsunade, Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Sai. All of them, but Tsunade, Sakura noted, had on the standard green Jounin vest and uniform. Even Naruto was wearing it instead of his usual bright, obnoxious, bright orange cloths. **

"**SAKURA-CHAN!!!!!!!!!! Your back!!!!"**

"**Naruto, shut up. And to everyone's surprise, especially Naruto's, he **_**did**_** stop talking."**

"**Oops…I need to work on controlling my powers more," murmured Sakura to herself. "You can talk now Naruto." **

**Said blonde immediately opened his mouth, and prepared to shout some sort of stupid nonsense, that had a 99.6849201 percent chance of having ramen in it, but Tsunade calmly whacked him on the back of his head before he could say anything. **

"**Dobe."**

"**Dickless."**

"**Brat."**

"**Baka."**

**I love home…**

_**I have one hell of a twisted second mind…**_

…**I'm mad, so you know…**

_**I figured as much.**_

**-**

**-**

**-**

As Sakura and her past teammates stood in front of Tsunade, waiting for the slightly drunk Hokage to speak, they found themselves staring at each other awkwardly. Finally, to everyone's relief, Tsunade decided to explain why they were there.

"I'm sure all of you are wondering why your watching me get drunk in my office, but I have a very good reason! She hiccupped as her face turned more and more pink. One, I have a mission for all of you. A-ranked. It shouldn't be too hard. And two, Sakura, you know that your time is almost up."

Sakura nodded her head slightly to show she understood, while her teammates stared at her in confusion. Ignoring their questioning gaze, the only vampire in the room left with a faint flicker. "Well, I advise the rest of you to pack your things and meet at the gate in the morning by eight am. Kakashi, you better be on time."

"Wait Baa-san! You haven't told us what the mission is yet!" Naruto cried.

Glaring at the blonde, Tsunade answered irritably, "I'll tell you at the gate. Now go." With a poof, all of them vanished. Sighing, Tsunade sent a messenger hawk to Sakura with the time to meet for the mission.

-

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-

Like always, Sakura headed off towards Ino's place for flowers. To her faint relief, Ino wasn't there, and in her place was a guy who tried fruitlessly to flirt with her. Grabbing a bouquet of lilies, she quickly paid and left with a flash, leaving only the silver bells on the door to jingle lonely. After visiting her parent's grave, Sakura headed off towards her house to take a shower and stock on some things. She lifted her head up calmly as a messenger hawk swooped down with the note from Tsunade. After the hawk flew away, she started to head off back home again. When she arrived, Sakura found to her surprise that Neji was standing in front of her door.

"Neji-san?"

Neji turned around to gaze at Sakura. "Sakura-san."

"Is there something you need?"

She noticed that Neji was looking slightly flustered. Though he hid it well, she could tell that he was shocked by how much she changed. Turning his head to gaze blankly at the sky he finally answered. "I heard from the gate guards that you returned today. Are you busy?"

Gazing curiously at the slightly uncomfortable ANBU, she murmured, "I have a mission in the morning at 8, but until then, no." Sakura's piercing gaze looked carefully at Neji. He was acting so different from the usual man that the kunoichi vampire couldn't help but be suspicious of him.

"I…I was hoping we could spar. I've always wondered how I would do against a medic, and I couldn't ask Hokage-sama for a battle." Blinking in surprise, Sakura finally answered him. "Sure, I'll be glad to do a light spar with you, but first, do you think I could go in first to drop off some of my stuff and grab something to eat?" Yes, vampires have to eat food, though even without food, they wouldn't die, but Sakura didn't like the idea of becoming a walking skeleton.

"No, of course not. Please go ahead, take as much time as you need Sakura-san."

Giving Neji a calculating glance, she decided to invite him in. "Please, come in and have something to drink." When Neji opened his mouth to decline, Sakura swiftly interrupted him by saying, "I'd like the company, and I'm curious as to how everyone has been."

Sighing in defeat, he walked into her house after her. "Wow, it's so clean. I thought it would be really dusty after a month of not living here…" Sakura gasped.

"Ah, Ino-san came once in awhile to clean up and stock up your food supply."

Blinking in faint surprise, Sakura murmured, "I'll have to thank Ino-pig."

Dropping her bag on the couch, Sakura went into the kitchen and grabbed two apples and a few bananas and a carton of orange juice as well. Tossing Neji an apple and two bananas she poured two glasses of orange juice, and handed one to the surprised Hyuuga.

He watched as Sakura bit into the apple as she looked around her house to make sure that everything was where it should be. Looking at the food, Neji quickly drank the juice, and bit into the apple as he put the two bananas back onto the counter of fruit. He didn't like the idea of looking like a monkey. Sakura was already finished with her apple and bananas, now drinking her juice in quick gulps. As the last drop disappeared, she said, "Ok, I'm ready now. Let's go."

Staring in shock at how fast she ate, he followed her blindly out of her house and to training ground 12. As they arrived at the slightly secluded area, Sakura rounded up on him and asked, "Ok. Neji-san. I know that you wanted to see me for another reason other then to spar."

Turning away from her gaze, Neji stared once again at the sky. "Neji-san?"

With a sigh, he finally answered. "I have a problem with my eyes." There was silence as the pink-haired kunoichi asked, "Why are you telling me? You could have just asked Tsunade-sama or another medic." He turned slightly pink as he mumbled what sounded like, "I didn't want to make a big deal out of it."

Sighing weakly, Sakura murmured, "Let me have a look." Her hands glowing a light green, as she raised it level to his gaze. Neji didn't even flinch in the slightest as she leaned in closer to lightly rest her hands on either side of his head.

"Neji-san. Please close your eyes." Sakura softly breathed out, her voice slightly huskier then usual. The white-eyed ANBU closed his eyes as he pondered why her voice sounded so strange. Unknown to him, Sakura was pondering thoughts herself, but none of her thoughts had anything to do with her male patient. All of them were on herself and the strange pain she was experiencing in her head. Not a headache, not even a migraine, but a pain that could only be described as aching, but at the same time uncannily soothing.

Diagnosing Neji's eyes quickly, Sakura had to fight from laughing out in laughter. "Tell me Neji-san. What problems have you had with your eyes?"

Opening his eyes from his closed state, he frowned somewhat at the pink-haired beauty. "Well…I've been having trouble seeing clearly. Before, I've been able to see things extremely far away, visibly, without even needing to use the Byakugan, but lately, everything has been slightly blurred. Am…am I going blind?"

At this, Sakura couldn't help but erupt in peals of laughter. "Blind…(laugh)…blind…." Her laughter faded off to faint giggling as she calmed down. She smiled gently at the scowling Neji as she reassured him calmly. "No. No of course not. You just need glasses Neji-san."

There was silence as Neji asked, his voice disbelieving, "Glasses…but…but no one in my family has glasses! Nearsightedness is a recessive trait!" For the first time in Sakura's life, she was able to witness a disturbed, hysterical Hyuuga.

"Well…the only ways this could have happened is if your father was nearsighted, but he wore contacts, and your mother was a Carrier of the trait, the other way around, or if they were either both Carriers, or if both wore contacts. " The pink-haired medic explained soothingly. Groaning, Neji dropped his head in defeat.

For the rest of the time, Sakura carefully studied his eyes to find the prescription of his eyes. When Neji mumbled that he would like contacts, Sakura spent a few minutes explaining how to use and take care of contacts. Finally, she wrote down the prescription and the directions to the nearest optician to order glasses, to his mortification.

As this was going on, the kunoichi couldn't help but be distracted by the constant pain in her head. She was surprised out of her reverie when Neji suddenly mumbled; "I would still enjoy a spar with you."

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Naruto was feeling rather gloomy. And once again, his downcast mood was due to his pink-haired teammate. He just couldn't understand how she could have changed so much. Of course, the blonde didn't blame her at all if she was cold to Team 7, considering that they'd all left her, but the way she was acting around everyone else was worrying.

It was as if she couldn't help but not trust anyone. The Kyuubi container flinched at the thought. _What if she was hurt on a mission while we weren't there to help her?_ That would definitely explain her wariness of the world. While still pondering the conditions of his only female teammate, Naruto started to unconsciously head toward the sound of what he supposed was a spar. His thoughts were broken when he realized that the spar was between Neji and Sakura.

The ground was covered with craters, broken trees, crushed stones and weapons. Sakura was standing quite calmly in front of Neji as the said man wiped the sweat from his brows.

Without warning, Neji suddenly flung a handful of kunai at his opponent. Sakura smirked as she smoothly sidestepped the thrown weapons, but faltered unexpectedly. Her eyes widened in faint shock as something unexplainable happened.

If asked, she would have described the feeling as refreshing. The pain in her head had snapped and freed itself from its bonds. As if someone had taken off a mountain of weight off her shoulders. In her abrupt freezing, Neji had drawn a few senbon needles and launched them at her, thinking that she would dodge.

Naruto was of the same mind as Neji. _They're going to bounce off her skin like that time with Itachi-teme, or she's going to dodge it_ Both were wrong though. The senbon needles tore through her flesh in many different places causing her blood to spill. The two male's eyes widened in horror as Sakura fell backwards.

"SAKURA-SAN!!!"

"SAKURA-CHAN!!!"

In a flash, both of them were at her side. "I'll go get a medic," rasped Neji as he stood to rush for help. But before he could take a step, Sakura hoarsely gasped out, "No. I'm fine." Waving away Naruto's hand, that were trying to keep her from getting up, Sakura pulled out the needles, wincing. A green aura surrounded her body, closing all of her wounds, but something seemed to be still different about her.

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan! Should I get Baa-chan?!!! Help? Do you need help? Does it hurt?!!! Sakura-chan!!!" Naruto wailed. His uninjured patient's eyebrows twitched in annoyance as she suddenly yelled, "Shut-up Naruto-baka!" while smacking him on the head.

"Ita-!...Wait!!!! Sakura-chan? ...YOU'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! THE OLD SAKURA-CHAN IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Yelling out in triumph, Naruto did his obnoxious 'happy, joy-joy' dance.

_Ugh…Was I that bad? _

_**Hell Yeah! You were a total B----!**_

…_Oh…_

_-_

_-_

_-_

At last, Sakura was finally out of her 'Newborn Stage'. This stage for a vampire is extremely troublesome because you could say that it is like a vampire's, 'teenage point'. The 'teenage point' lasts for quite sometime, usually until a year has passed since you were changed; that, or a month after you discover your gift, if you have one in the first place that is.

As a Newborn, a vampire is likely to be extremely cold, wary, depressing, and rather rude. Some vampires describe that period as the 'dead stage'. Emotionless, and seemingly untouchable, a Newborn is sort of like a beautiful, flawless corpse. Of course, they have their good points too. For instance, Newborns have the 'absolute defense', which is the invisible 'barrier' that seems to make it impossible to hurt them physically in anyway. Though vampires have superior speed, reflexes and senses, a Newborn's are about twice more powerful. Lastly, Newborns that have gifts seem to be able to use their gift without any limits at all. This allows a vampire who discovers their gift to test and experiment with it for a month without any negative barriers and limits on themselves.

-

-

-

In a cold damp cell, a strange 'monster' was being held, restrained by chains, ropes, drugs, and certain jutsus. The 'monster' looked like any human except for its' fangs and a few other noticeable features.

"What do you think it is Itachi?" Growled the blue-skinned man. Itachi didn't bother answering.

-

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-

"YOU'RE LATE!!!!!!!" To Kakashi's utter shock, it wasn't one, but two voices that screamed out the obvious. "Sakura?" He asked in faint wonder.

"…Um… Sorry guys…I know I've been acting…weird…for a while. Sorry." The female mumbled while she gave a sheepish grin.

"…Well that was sudden…" Grunted Sasuke.

"Oh, Ice B---- is back to Hag?"

Before Sakura could damage Sai physically for his rude comment, Tsunade appeared with Shizune at her side. "Sakura, it seems as if you're finally out of that stage." Sakura smiled gently, her whole feature seemed to shine with a rather inhumane beauty.

"Hai, sorry for being so…troublesome…" Grinning rather sheepishly, Sakura suddenly turned to glare rather malevolently at her team. "That doesn't mean I've forgiven you." Her voice was back to being cold as ice. As the male members of team 7 flinched, Tsunade couldn't help but smirk at the group of four who were known for being Konoha's best shinobis.

"Team 7! Your mission was a A-ranked-"

"Wait! What do you mean it **was **a A-ranked?!!" Naruto cried out.

Tsunade completely ignored Naruto as she kept talking. "But as of now, the mission has gone up an S-rank mission."

"Yes!!!! A S-rank-OUCH! SAKURA-CHAN! WHY'D YOU HIT ME?!!!" Cried Naruto as he sat on the ground nursing his head.

No one paid him any attention as Tsunade went on with her explanation. "Last night, the client sent us notice that the mission has gotten more difficult due to the sightings of the Akatsuki in that region." Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction as he heard the news and Naruto froze in surprise. "Naruto, I didn't want to send you on this mission, but I believe team 7 is strong enough to cope. There is also a limited chance that you'll even accouter the Akatsuki, for they have no relationship with your mission."

His blue eyes serious, Naruto murmured, "Ah. I got it Baa-chan."

**Forth Hokage!** Yelled Inner Sakura.

_What?_

**He looks like the Fourth!**

…

Sakura's mental conversation ended when the blonde Hokage began to speak once again. "This mission is an assassination that will secure Konoha's future against the rebelling missing-nins in the Rock Country. Your task is to find the main base of the pests, and kill them all, especially the leader. In other words, you are to terminate them."

"Wait. Are you the client, Hokage-sama?" Sasuke asked. There was silence as the female Sannin's piercing golden/brown eyes gazed at the group of her finest shinobis. "Yes." She answered at last. In her head, Tsunade was fuming. She had wanted to keep her being the client a secret so she had purposefully talked as if the client was a man living in Rock, but the Uchiha had ruined her plans.

-

-

-

It had already been a few days of their mission, but they had yet to arrive in the designated area. "Are we there yet?" Naruto asked.

"A few more hours dobe." Sasuke grunted.

Sakura was in the back, acting as the one to leave hidden clues and trails in case they went missing. The signs were left so that only Konoha shinobis could ever find them. Unfortunately, the method didn't help keep Konoha missing-nins from following it as well.

What none of them knew was that Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame of the Akatsuki were following them.

-

-

-

"Itachi. Are you certain that the pink brat knows what that 'monster' is?"

"No."

"You're not certain."

"I have my reasons to believe that the girl is of the same species, or at least related in some way to one."

"…I can't wait to kill." Grinning, the sadistic blue man swung his sword confidently; imagining that the air he was cutting was actually the 'pink-haired brat'.

-

-

-

"Achoo!"

"Bless you Sakura-chan!"

**Someone's talking about you again.**

_Well, I don't think I'll like the person, whoever it is._

**Why?**

_The sneeze had an ominous feeling to it._

…**and you say I have the problems.**

**-**

**-**

**-**

**A/N: Just out of curiosity...How old do you think I am based on my writing style and such? **

**-**

**- **

**Reviews!!!**

**Night'sBullet: Thank you for review!!! Sorry my friend, but I can't tell you what the 'beast' is yet! I hope you enjoyed this chapter even though this one is rather boring.**

**xXHyuugaSakuraXx: Thank you! I'm glad you like it! **

**ForgiveButNeverForget: Ah!!! Your making me blush. Thank you for the review. I Love Cookies!!!!**

**Zephyrette: I may put the battle as a oneshot so that people who want to can read it. If Itachi gets bitten by Sakura he will become -----. Sorry, can't answer that just yet. Lol. **

**LitoxShorty: Thank you for the ideas. I always wondered what a mary-sue was... Anyways, your review helped me get inspiration and fix Sakura's mary-sue problem as well. In the next few chapters, something is going to happen to Sakura that will probably make her less mary-sue. Thank you for reviewing!!!**

**Pink Blossom Princess: Wah! I'm so sorry. I'm really trying to put Itachi in more but I have really big plans for him in the later chapters, but he can't be in the earlier ones as much because the plot hasn't really gotten fully laid out yet. I'm really glad you reviewed, and Thank you for the encouragement!**

**AnimeFreakGirl777: Yes, it's a ItaSaku, but it's going to take awhile for that to happen because of my weird and twisted plot...lol. I'm glad yo like it and Thank you for reviewing!!!**

**ThornRoses: Thank you for the advice. It really helped inspire me with the plot and helped clear the writer's block! I'm going to try and fix the mary-sue. Something is going to happen to Sakura that will probably make her less Mary-sue. Not to mention, I worked on it a little in this chapter as well. Yes, it is a Itachi Sakura but because of my poor romance writing skills and my crazy plot, it's going to take awhile for Itachi to make a big entrance. I'm glad people like Kamui and Suki! A lot of times, people really hate OC characters...including myself...**

**EverMindTheRuleOfThree: Wah!!! Why are so many people making me blush today?! I'm really happy that you like my fic. Thank you for reviewing!!!Lol.**

**M-Mello: Wah!!!!!!!!!! You are the 100th reviewer!!!!!...I think... Anyways, Thank you for reviewing and making my goal happen! I'm really glad you like the story and I'll try to make it better and better!**

**Haruka: Lol. Yeah, I would do that too! I'm really happy that you like it so far! Thank you for reviewing!!!**

**Pinky101: Thank you Pinky!!!! I'm really glad you like it, and thank you for the encouragement!!!**

**scarletmirror: Wah!!! Thank you! Man, you are the 5th person to make me blush! I'm really glad you like it, and even though this chapter was a bit boring, please keep reading and sending your awesome reviews!!**

**unbeatablehinata: I'm really glad you liked chapter 8!!! I'm so sorry about Itachi, but I'm a really bad romance writer and my plot is so crazy and complicated that it's going to take awhile for Itachi to become a major in this fic, but please be patient! Lol. I love Sakura's power too. If I had that power...it would be really bad...sigh.**

**kyo12591: I'm so glad you like this! Thank you for reviewing again! Even though this chapter is a bit boring, please bare with me! **

**winged wondergirl: Wah!!!! You are the 6th person to make me blush. I'm so glad you like it! Yeah, I made the council nice because mean councils are a bit over used. Thank you once again for the reviews and have a happy...um...February, March, April, May, June, July...and yeah. **

**aznkitty180: Hm...maybe I'll do a oneshot of the battle...Anyways, I'm really glad you liked the chapter!!! Sorry about ItaSaku...I'm a terrible romance writer and with my crazy plot it's going to take awhile before Itachi gets into major action. Thanks for reviewing!!!!**

**My.Dark.Tears: Lol. Yes! I think it's really funny when my cousin gets a migraine from drinking too much. He falls a lot...lol. I'm thinking about whether I should do a oneshot on the three way battle so that people who wants to read it can...Anyways, Thank you for reviewing!!!**

**xXFallenSakuraXx: AHHH!!! You are the...7th person to make me blush!!! I'm so glad you like it!!! Thank you so much for the review and the Cliffy Queen award!!!!**

**Chocolat-Chan: I'm really glad you like Suki! A lot of people usually don't like OC characters. I'm glad people are taking Kamui and Suki so well. I know what you mean! I want Sakura's power too!!!! Thank you for reviewing!!!!**

**FakeCompassion: Lol! I'm glad you liked chapter 8!!! Thank you for reviewing!!!!**

**Shinju Tenshi: Wah!!!!! You are the 8th person to make me blush!!!! Thank you so much for the compliments!!! I would love to have Sakura's power!!! Thank you once again for the compliments and the review!!!**

**Hao'sAniul: Wah!!!!!!!!! You are the 9th person to make me blush! I'm really glad you liked the story so far! Thank you very much for the encouragements and I'm really surprised that I have few grammatical mistakes...English is my 2nd language... Thank you once again!!!! Oh, and sorry about Itachi...my crazy plot and my terrible romance writing skills are causing Itachi to be left out a bit. But I promise that he will come into action soon!**

**Keira-Natsume101: I'm so glad you like it!!! Thank you so much for the review!!!!**

**narutocraze1233: Lol. No, unfortunately Itachi isn't a werewolf, but it is a really good idea...hm...my brain is spinning with new ideas now! I hope this chapter explained why Sakura was acting pretty mean and I'm so glad you like Suki. A lot of people hate OC characters. Because of my poor romance writing skills and my crazy plot, it's going to take awhile for Itachi to come into a major role, but I'll work hard! Thank you for reviewing!!! **

**Lady V-chan: Lol. Yes, I'm glad we can relate! I'm so glad you like Suki, a lot of people usually don't like OC characters but I'm glad you like him! Lol! I'm amazed that you were able to get that I portrayed Kamui as a pervert! You are one amazing person!!! Thank you for reviewing!!!**

**NinjaDucky: Yes! There is more!!! I'm glad you like it!!! Thank you so much for reviewing!!!!**

**dull spork: Lol...Though I'm a bit confused about the bipolar thing, I do know about Itachi and blindless sasuke! I read the manga! I'm glad you like it! Thank you for reviewing!!!!**

**darkwings: Thank you!!! I'm glad you like it! I promise to write more! **


	10. Vote

**Hello!!! I know I should be working on Changed, but I want to get started on the outline for a different story as well. The first two don't have a main character chosen yet. If you vote for one of them, please also give your opinion on whom you want as the main character and who you want for pairings. Please vote for only one!**

**Saving **

_**Main Character Unknown.**_

I've watched countless sad romance movies. A walk to remember, and Titanic to name a couple…I could go on for a while, and always, like a fool, I wished that someone would love me like that. Yet, now that is has happened, I would give anything for the experience to have stayed in the movies. If I had never met him… But at the same time, our meeting was a blessing. Those times were my most precious. He told me to go on, to find someone who would love and cherish me for my whole life, someone who wouldn't leave. Someone, whose life isn't so, cruel. He made me promise not to wait, but can it be considered a sin if I break that promise? That's why I'm here today. After 2 years of traveling, I've finally arrived at my destination, the place where it's rumored to have a time travel field…

**Fallen from Star**

_**Main Character Unknown.**_

As the wind blew faster and faster, and the water rose and fell with the ripples, I saw something impossible. My team was shocked into freezing, their katana forgotten in their hands as the creature left the waves. It was human, I suppose, but it fell from the stars. What I had considered as joke mission has turned into something phenomenon. When the Hokage ordered my team to, 'go and catch that falling star over there', we had all thought, including the Hokage herself, that it was just one of her joke missions to force us into a vacation. But there, right in front of my eyes was the star. To my utter shock, I realized that it looked a lot like my female teammate, the one who had gone missing a few years ago.

**Cocoon **

_**A Sakura Story.**_

I knew that it would happen, but when was the question. My foster parents had always told me that one day, like my real mother, I would evolve into something beautiful, just like how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. What I wasn't planning was my change happening right in the middle of the Chuunin Exam's preliminary. One second I was glaring at Ino, the next, something smooth like glass was surrounding me like a cocoon. I can't help but wonder if I'm going to be a butterfly or a moth… (Takes place during the Chuunin Exams.)


	11. Chapter 10

X

Aftershock of Gift

**Hello! This is important!!!!! The parts in the story that are underlined in the story, not the recap, are when they are talking with sign language. Oh, and Chocolat-Chan, my Beta's, notes are in bold italics and my notes are in just plain bold! **

**Recap: It had already been a few days of their mission, but they had yet to arrive in the designated area. "Are we there yet?" Naruto asked. **

"**A few more hours, dobe." Sasuke grunted.**

**Sakura was in the back, acting as the one to leave hidden clues and trials in case they went missing. The signs were left so that only Konoha shinobi could ever find them. Unfortunately, the method didn't help keep Konoha missing-nins from following it as well. **

**What none of them knew was that Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame of the Akatsuki were following them. **

**-**

**-**

**-**

"**Itachi. Are you certain that the pink brat knows what that 'monster' is?" **

"**No." **

"**You're not certain."**

"**I have my reasons to believe that the girl is of the same species, or at least related in some way to one." **

"…**I can't wait to kill." Grinning, the sadistic blue man swung his sword confidently; imagining that the air he was cutting was actually the 'pink-haired brat'. **

**-**

**-**

**-**

"**Achoo!" **

"**Bless you Sakura-chan!" **

**Someone's talking about you again.**

_**Well, I don't think I'll like the person, whoever it is.**_

**Why?**

_**The sneeze had an ominous feeling to it.**_

…**and you say I have the problems.**

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"Itachi. Are we going to attack them or not?"

"We'll wait until they are tired from the encounter with the Rock-nins."

"Humph. Fine."

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The team found the base with ease, and was now taking a short break in the shade of some large boulders. "Snakes," Grunted Sasuke.

"What was that Teme?" asked Naruto while giving the Uchiha a sideways glance.

"Dobe. Watch out for snakes," Sasuke grunted again.

Kakashi calmly snapped a hand over Naruto's mouth to keep him from yelling out as a huge snake slithered by. Naruto shivered and wrenched Kakashi's hand off before asking, "Those were your snakes right Teme?"

Sasuke glanced up at the nervous Naruto before replying, "They're not summons."

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With their short break finished, and their plans laid-out, Team 7 was now dispatched around the base, ready to enter. "Naruto, stay near the entrance and keep anyone from escaping. Sasuke and Sai, go into the base and kill as many as possible. Sakura, free the prisoners and exterminate as many enemies as you can. I'll go and assassinate the leader, Sai, you're my backup for that," murmured Kakashi into his mic.

"Hai." With that the team jumped into action, first killing the guards then the many shinobi that came running. Sakura immediately headed in, and using her speed, captured a few with thin unbreakable wire.

_Time to test my limits._ She thought as her eyes became violet.

Facing her 10 captives, she ordered, "You will head toward the prisoners and kill anyone but the Konoha shinobi." With that, she freed them. They seemed bewildered when their body seemed to move on their own. As they headed off toward the prisoners, with Sakura a few meters behind, they came across another missing-nin who then became engaged in a battle with his own comrade.

"Why the F--- are you trying to kill me?!!!"

"I don't know! I can't stop!"

The kunoichi slowed down to watch this interesting turn of event. Her group headed off before her, down some stairs and finally into a large cell, but Sakura knew where they were so she didn't follow.

**Come on Sakura. This is boring.**

With Inner Sakura urging her on, Sakura turned to head off toward where the prisoners were kept. What she met was something that would terrify her for life. All the prisoners who were civilian women and children had been gathered into the middle of the cell. Surrounding them were her ordered shinobi with kunai in their hands.

_I didn't tell them to not kill the prisoners!_

"NO!!!!!" She screamed in panic as the blades left the hands to massacre the prisoners. Blood splattered over the ground as the bodies fell to the ground dead. Sakura swiftly killed all of the missing-nins in panic but knew that it was too late.

The world seemed to spin as voices and terrorized screams bellowed in her head. The fear everyone had felt due to her 'gift' was affecting her as well. Falling to her knees in terror, Sakura cried for the first time in years. "No…please. Please! STOP!!!!!! STOP!!!! SHUT-UP!!!!!!!!!!!" She shrieked as the phantoms of her victims screeched in her head. Covered in blood, hair fisted in her hands, eyes screwed shut to not see the corpses, Sakura sat there trembling, and screaming in terror.

It seemed that she had found the aftershock of her gift the hard way. The stronger the gift was the more powerful and painful the aftershock was. Her aftershock was probably one of the cruelest in the history of vampires. When someone was killed due to the influence of her gift, she would hear and mentally feel the terror her 'victims' went through before, and as they died.

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"Sakura-chan?" Naruto whispered softly to the silent kunoichi. "Sakura-chan do you want something to eat?"

When he got silence as an answer, Naruto slumped his shoulders and sadly walked away.

"She's not talking?" asked Sasuke.

"Yeah…" whispered Naruto gloomily. The four men stared anxiously at the pink haired girl, as she sat silently, staring at the flames of the fire.

"What do you think happened?" Sai asked.

"I have no idea. She was just sitting there crying and screaming with blood all over her, surrounded by the dead bodies of prisoners and missing-nins," Naruto murmured softly. Fisting his hands, the blonde glared at the ground as the memories flashed through his mind.

After fulfilling their parts, they had gotten worried when Sakura hadn't shown up with the prisoners. Naruto had headed in to find her. What he found would haunt him for the rest of his life. In a pool of blood surrounded by corpses, Sakura screamed and cried while she clutched her pink hair. Naruto had hurriedly picked her up and ran out of that tomb while desperately asking Sakura what happened. 12 hours had passed since then, but Sakura had still not said a single word, or eaten. Heck! She hadn't acknowledged their existence yet.

"Sakura usually wouldn't be so upset by something like this. She is an ANBU so it can't be the dead women and children." mumbled Kakashi.

At the moment, the phantoms had left, but their voices still lingered in the back of her mind causing her to tremble slightly in fear and pain. Eyes glazed over, a dismal atmosphere shadowed her whole figure. Her face had the expression of one who was lost. The same expression all four boys had experienced at least once in their life.

_I'm… sealing off my voice. Except for emergencies…_

**Agreed…**

Steeling herself, Sakura slowly stopped her trembling and stood up. Kakashi had long ago wiped away all the blood on her with a gentle hand as Sasuke, Sai and Naruto watched worriedly nearby.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried out as she stood up. She turned to gaze at the blonde, but try as she might she couldn't force out a smile. Her eyes were steely, rather empty and cold. Her gaze was more frozen then ever. Sakura silently accepted the bowl of ramen that Sasuke was holding out for her, and she ate carefully, mechanically.

_I miss Suki._ She thought as the image of the sweet royal flashed through her mind. She was pulled out of her thoughts when Kakashi decided to ask a question. "Sakura, what happened?" She turned to gaze at the silver/gray haired man as she signaled with her hands, nothing.

All shinobi had to learn sign language in their academy days due to how useful it could be in a mission, but for Sakura to be talking in sign language caused Team 7 to stare in shock.

Eyes wide, her first sensei quickly asked, "Sakura?!! Did something happen to your voice?"

Gazing expressionlessly at her teammates, she replied, No. I've sealed my voice off. I won't talk unless it's an emergency from now on. Giving a polite nod of her head, she headed off towards her bedroll.

-

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The wind blew around broken and cut due to the large boulders that rose in random intervals. "Rock, rock, boulder, rock, pebble, rock, rock, ROCK, ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Shut up dobe!" Sasuke hissed.

Before Naruto could retaliate, Sai suddenly murmured, "Someone's coming." As soon as this was said, Sakura froze in her tracks, an unrecognizable expression on her face. Danger!! She signaled.

Like a shadow, seven silent people glided into view, two of them female and the rest male. They were beautiful in a wild way, with long hair and wolf like eyes. Unlike Kiba, the group of seven gave off a power that was both ancient and supernatural. Sakura hissed at them, her back arching slightly sort of like a cat, a warning glow in her eyes. In response, they in turn bared their teeth, revealing their sharp fangs that seemed deadly enough to cut through diamond.

For the first since she was changed, she felt terror shoot up and down her back due to an enemy opponent. Breathing hard, the female royal signaled, stay back. You can't fight them.

"No way! We're not leaving you to fight this alone!" Naruto cried out, his blue eyes flashing with anger.

"Bloodsucker." hissed one of the enemies. Sakura just sent them an icy glare. The leader of the pack growled as he took a step in Sakura's direction. "Why won't you talk leech? Are we to lowly for your kind to speak to?" he asked. His low deep, growling voice was saturated with sarcasm. The male members of team 7 saw a spark of life in their teammate's eyes at the word leech. Usually, the kunoichi wouldn't take offense from such a weak insult, but the look in her eyes screamed murder.

A powerful aura surrounded the pink-haired royal as her eyes turned violet. "Leave," she ordered, a snarl in her voice. The seven figures growled and shook their heads, easily brushing off her gift, to Sakura's intense surprise. (A/N: Sakura's gift worked on anyone when she was in the 'Teenage Stage' but now, it doesn't work against the vampire's greatest enemy.) "Sakura?" whispered Kakashi.

She ignored him, her gaze never leaving the figures. "You know what I am. I know what you are. I'll warn you again, leave, before you start a war between our kinds."

"One less of your kind isn't enough to start a war, don't be so full of yourself!" a young female spat while she crouched in a threatening pose. If possible, their manner became even more hostile as they slowly changed. Their eyes became like glowing amber as their nails became claws and their fangs grew more pronounced. The female wildly shot at Sakura without any warning. She moved with the speed to match a vampire. What are they you ask? They, as some of you may have guessed by now, are werewolves, the other ancient species that evolved over time, usually hidden from the knowledge of people. They and the vampires have had, since the beginning of time, a deep hatred for each other that grew stronger and stronger as the years went by.

Before Sakura could respond, Sasuke had already jumped in to meet the female werewolf's attack. The werewolf dodged his figure; her eye's never leaving Sakura, considering her the main threat, the main priority. "Sasuke! She's not humane!! Stay back!" The vampire practically screeched in fear as the werewolf's claws came close to connecting against his skin.

The female werewolf fell back to circling team 7 guardedly, her eyes glowing in the way a hunter's will. "Neither are you!" the female werewolf spat, raising her upper lip in a snarl. The team turned to look at Sakura in confusion, but the young vampire promptly ignored their questioning gaze, instead choosing to stare at their eyes with a fixed stare. As her eye's glowing violet again, Sakura's alluring voice rang out in the rocky vicinity.

"Sasuke, Naruto, Sai, Kakashi. Stay back and don't join the fight unless your life is in danger!" Sakura's order was careful, deliberate, and thought-out, not wanting to be the cause for their injury.

They did as ordered, backing away a few meters away from the figures that were prepared for battle. The power and authority surrounding Sakura was so strong, that it was almost visible. Glaring once again at the pack, she stated, "I, Haruno Sakura, one of the six **royal** of my people, command that they leave before a full out war between our kinds starts. The council and another royal, the revered Suki of Emotions, are my close comrades. Leave before permanent damage is caused!"

The one that Sakura would guess to be the Alpha of this pack spoke, "Haruno Sakura, also known by many as Hime of Command. A royal vampire newly turned. Yes, I've heard of you." He disregarded the soft gasps of surprise that was heard from the male members of team 7. "For millions of years, your kind has been in power. You never let us hunt the humans as much as we need, always saying pathetic things like how humans can't discover our existence! Killing you will be a fitting wakeup call for a war THAT WE WILL WIN!!!!!" Ending his short speech with a howl that all 7 took part in, Sakura covered her ears and hissed in pain at the 'racket' they caused.

The Alpha male rushed at the pink-haired kunoichi in her moment of weakness and swiped at her with his claws. Fur started to cover his whole body, and a tail appeared as his cloths shrunk into his body unseen. Finally, standing in front of the vampire was a fully changed werewolf, a magnificent, but terrifying creature that looked like a giant, eerily beautifully wolf. He was a dark brown, almost black, color with glowing amber eyes that all changed werewolves have.

Naruto, Kakashi, Sasuke and Sai could only watch in horror as Sakura engaged herself in a wild dance, were a single wrong step could result in death. Her pink hair flew around as she smoothly dodged the attacks with lithe, graceful steps. Jumping back, Sakura flung a miniature army of kunai at her equally lithe, and graceful opponent, who carelessly batted away the weapons with ease. The battle lasted for another few minutes, but with them both moving at a speed so fast, that for them, it seemed like they had been battling for more then a few hours.

Finally, the two broke apart, Sakura with a large cut down her arm and on her side, and the werewolf with a cut down his leg and a fractured arm. Sakura was lacking blood in her wounds, but the werewolf was dripping the crimson life liquid. The seven werewolves gazed at the pink-haired beauty before abruptly all attacking at once.

As Sakura fell to the ground in a jumble of limbs, Naruto cried, "SAKURA-CHAN!!!!!!!!"

Kakashi's face was frozen in terror as he watched his first and only female student disappear in the mass of attacking bodies. Sasuke, Sai and Naruto were both letting out a frightening amount of chakra, but Naruto was the one who worried Kakashi the most. The Kyuubi's chakra was leaking and the first tail was starting to show.

With a roar, Naruto broke away from the order that Sakura had placed and shot off toward the battle. Already, two tails had formed and the third was showing. "GET AWAY FROM HER!!!!!!" He bellowed as a burst of sinister chakra exploded from him.

_This is bad!_ Kakashi thought as the fourth tail started to form. He could only watch from a distance as Naruto lost himself as the fourth tail appeared. A single roar of his voice formed a huge crater, and Kakashi, Sasuke and Sai were practically blown away from the force. Seeing Naruto, the werewolves had long fled, disappearing as fast as they had appeared, leaving the broken body of Sakura laying there like a discarded rag doll.

Sasuke, on the directions of Kakashi had summoned two huge snakes to retrain Naruto long enough for them to place a seal on the blonde's forehead. The menacing red chakra faded and left the seriously injured body of Naruto. Adding to their troubles, the surrounding boulders started to crumble from the pressure of the Kyuubi's chakra, and created, to Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sai's great horror, a dangerous obstacle.

"We have to leave! Or we'll be crushed!" yelled Kakashi, who had Naruto on his back.

"We can't leave Sakura!" growled Sasuke, his Sharingan flashing red, the anger present in his crimson eyes.

A look of intense pain crossed across Kakashi's face as he murmured, "We have to."

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Itachi had watched the whole exchange between the, now known vampire, and the 'monsters'. He now knew that the 'monster' was a different species then the pink-haired kunoichi, and she even seemed to have a deep hatred for the 'monster'.

The monster that Itachi had captured had not spoken once so he had supposed that they were creatures that couldn't speak, but when he had heard the 'monster's here talk he had been slightly surprised. Itachi was glad that Kisame hadn't seen what had happened. With his huge chakra signal, he would have given them away at once. Kisame, to his chagrin, had been ordered by Itachi to take care of the rock hunter nins that had unexpectedly arrived, long before the battle had started.

Itachi observed in the shadows with his crimson eyes as the male Konoha shinobi fled the raining boulders and crumbling stones, leaving behind, against their will, their pink-haired teammate. "A vampire," he murmured softly to himself. Though his face was emotionless, his mind was exploding with the possible merits, and disadvantages of certain actions, that all had to do with the vampire. Finally making up his mind, Itachi stepped out of the shadow towards the fallen kunoichi.

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Sakura felt broken. The pain was excruciating, and she knew, even though vampires say that they can only die through suicide, she knew that the truth was there was actually one other way to die; through the wounds inflicted on her by werewolves. She knew the only way for her to survive was to drink fresh blood, but not any type of blood, human blood; the type of blood that she had promised, sworn, to herself to never try.

As Sakura lay there like a rag doll, praying, hoping for anyone to come, and help her, she felt her conscious slowly seeping.

_Am I dieing? Can vampires, who can't even sleep, fall unconscious? _

Inner was silent. She was all alone now. No, someone was coming.

_Who?_

Sakura saw through darkened visions a man with crimson eyes.

_Sasuke?_ She wondered before falling into black.

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**To clear up a few things... First, the 'monster' that Itachi talks about is a werewolf. Two, the reason team 7 had to leave Sakura was because of the raining boulders. And because Naruto was injured and Sakura was pretty much safe from where she was, they had to leave the area quickly before they got crushed. Of course, they were planning on returning at once.**  
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_**I thank Chocolat-chan, my awesome Beta (oh yeah, you bet I'm writing this, aren't you? BWAHA!)! Yeah, Chocolat-chan wrote this (wow, odd to write myself in 3rd person). I felt like being evil. xD**_

_**Chocolat-chan wrote the above note because she's an evil bitch.**_

**And this is Layla... I don't know what to say...Oh well!!! Oh!Now I remember! Thank you everyone who voted. I'm planning on doing all three, but in the order of the votes. I've pretty much decided on which story to start next, but you're free to still vote if you want! At the moment, I'm planning to write Cocoon, then Fallen from Star and finally Saving. Of course after Changed is finished! **

**Oh, and finally: I finally got permission to reply to reviews the regular way, which is a good thing because answering all the reviews in the chapter is killing my fingers! So from now on, I will answer reviews the ordinary way! **

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	12. Chapter 11

XI

The Beginning of a Long War

**A/N: This is important! So you know, werewolves are not immortal. They can die through serious injury, and unlike vampires, they are able to turn anyone into a werewolf with a single scratch or bite. They also age and can die through old age, but are immune to diseases. A vampire on the other hand can only die through a wound from a werewolf, or through suicide, and does not age, but there is only a 9 percent chance of a bitten human surviving through The Change. Only strong and healthy humans, usually shinobis can turn into one without dieing. **

**This is to the anonymous reviewers, Dragon's Crystal Eyes and Golden Sabortooth: Thank you for the idea. I won't be putting that in for a while, but it's definitely going to show, it was the perfect final touch to my plot! Look forward to it, but it's going to show up in the end. Sorry if that annoys you.**

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**Recap: Sakura felt broken. The pain was excruciating, and she knew, even though vampires say that they can only die through suicide, she knew that the truth was there was actually one other way to die; through the wounds inflicted on her by werewolves. She knew the only way for her to survive was to drink fresh blood, but not any type of blood, human blood; the type of blood that she had promised, sworn, to herself to never try.**

**As Sakura lay there like a rag doll, praying, hoping for anyone to come, and help her, she felt her conscious slowly seeping.**

_**Am I dieing? Can vampires, who can't even sleep, fall unconscious? **_

**Inner was silent. She was all alone now. No, someone was coming. **

_**Who?**_

**Sakura saw through darkened visions a man with crimson eyes. **

_**Sasuke? **_**She wondered before falling into black. **

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Sakura could faintly grasp the knowledge that she was moving. Someone, or something had picked her up bridal style and was carrying her somewhere. Strong, warm arms encircled her slim, petite figure but Sakura could barely acknowledge the warmth.

Itachi, with his speed, had managed to distance himself quite faraway from their original location. He had already passed a few towns, and deciding finally that he had traveled far enough, he stopped. Carefully laying down Sakura, he quickly made a vast amount of hand signs and slammed his hand on the ground. From his hand black symbols sprawled out, covering the ground with a black design.

The black-haired man, then picked up Sakura and stepped into the middle of the design, and let chakra flow into the symbols. With a flash, they were gone, not even leaving a trace to show that they had been there. With another flash, the two arrived in front of a large traditional house that sprawled out over a hill. There was a ridiculous amount of genjutsu on the house, hiding it from other's view. This place was Itachi's private home.

Swiftly, he walked into the house, and into his room where he laid her down on his bed. The wounds on Sakura seemed even more serious now that Itachi was finally able to analyze it carefully.

"What do you need?" he asked her.

Still delirious from the pain, Sakura had no idea that the man who she was with was Uchiha Itachi.

Her eyes still closed, Sakura managed to rasp out, "Blood…"

With crimson eyes, the man gazed at the beautiful vampire with an impassive expression. He noticed that something strange was happening to her. She was arching her back slightly and her face was turning more feral as her nails and fangs grew longer. Slightly unnerved, he flipped out a kunai and slit a cut on his wrist, letting the blood flow freely down his hand onto the ground. With his free hand, Itachi gently opened her mouth and let the dark red liquid flow past her lips into her mouth, as she hungrily drank.

Little by little, Sakura's strength returned, and as it returned, her wounds miraculously healed as if time was speeding up on her wounds. Itachi noticed that her face, fangs, and claws returned to normal as she stopped arching her back in pain. Pulling back his arm, the Akatsuki healed his cut with a simple medical jutsu that he had learned while in ANBU.

With faint interest, he watched as the vampire stirred as she slowly opened her eyes. They were as red as his own he noted with surprise. Licking her lips slowly of the last drops of remaining blood, the girl turned her gaze at the handsome black-haired man. Crimson eyes met crimson. While one remained unchanged, the other's widened in shock.

I drank your blood? She signed with her hands.

A slight nod of his head caused Sakura's world to spin.

Taking small gulps of air, she stared at the man, her face frozen in shock. Suddenly, as if an on button was pushed, the pink-haired kunoichi snarled and bared her teeth, showing her deadly fangs as she scrambled away as far as she could from him.

Itachi found this picture quite amazing. The wild beauty of her fear, and hostile actions were breathtaking. Though he didn't show it, she fascinated Itachi. Her beauty, her power, her whole being was addicting to him. Though he knew becoming one of her kind might cost him his life, he wanted it. Uchiha Itachi wanted to become like her.

"Stay in this room." He ordered, and without a second glance, left, leaving the wary vampire in the room alone.

Eyes slowly fading back to green, Sakura lowered her guard slightly and racked her brain, trying to remember what happened. She remember the mission, the horrifying experience with her gift, and… "F---!!!"

_I can't believe the werewolves attacked…_

**Those mutts deserve to be thrown to fangirls!!!! **

_Considering their good looks, they probably have some already…_

**Exactly!!**

Sighing faintly at her Inner's antics, Sakura frowned slightly, and then froze in realization. _I DRANK HIS BLOOD!!!!!!! God No!! Now I'm going to be…different when I'm around him!_

**You mean you're going to be horny around him.**

_You don't have to be so unsympathetic!! _

Pacing the room, she suddenly gave herself a mental beating. _Why am I even in this room?!_

**Good question genius.**

_Shut up._

Walking towards the door, she carefully checked the surrounding area for danger, but found nothing. Cautiously, Sakura grabbed the handle, and… Before she could turn the knob, the door opened, and in walked Itachi.

"…"

"…"

There was complete silence as they stared at each other. The kuniochi could feel the blood lust, and even the regular lust, rise in her as she stared at the man. _Crap!!!_She thought, as she involuntarily looked him up, licking her lips slowly, hearing the blood rushing through his vein.

**Flashback:** **"Sakura-chan, so you know, we vampires have a venom that starts the change in a human when we bite them. Though there is only a 9 percent chance of them surviving… Anyways, if you drink the blood of a human, without biting or killing him/her, you'll feel a lot of physical attraction towards them." Suki happily lectured.**

**Eyes widening, Sakura practically screamed, "What!!! Even if they're the same gender!!!" **

**In a much too cheerful way, he chirped, "Yup!" **

…**Yes, way too cheerfully…**

**Flashback Ends:**

Itachi was studying her reaction to him with a nonchalant expression, though inside, he was affected slightly by her seductive actions. Her response was surprising, though not really unpleasant in a sense, but if this kept up, he wouldn't be able to keep being indifferent.

Sakura gulped slightly, as involuntarily, she glided over to him. He was quite taller then her…or was she just short?

Raising herself on tiptoes, she raised her arms to encircle his neck, while pressing their bodies closer together. Itachi stood stock-still. Like stone he stood, amazingly keeping his heart beat the same pace. Her pale face had a red tint to it, as she took in his scent. It smelled so delicious, so tempting to her.

The vampire rested her head on his shoulder and breathed out in faint rasps as she desperately fought the temptations of blood. Inside, the kunoichi was mortified by her behaviors, but it wasn't really surprising. All regular vampires, the one who drank human blood, seduced their pray, it was their second nature. Now, Sakura's hidden seductress had awoken, rather unwillingly.

Itachi could feel her hot breath fanning on his neck and felt himself tensing as her smooth hands ran through his hair, causing his hair-tie to fall to the ground. She brushed her lips lightly on down his neck, and stopped to rest them gently, like a kiss, on his pulse. The Uchiha felt her lips part slowly…

_NO!!!!! _Sakura thought, as she quickly pulled away in panic.

She crouched on the bed, as far away from him as possible. Itachi's face was emotionless, but his eyes lacked the Sharingan, and were now a deep onyx. The beautiful woman was breathing hard and her eyes wide and panicked.

You were planning this? She asked.

"No," was his blunt reply.

Sakura's form started shaking. She had only experienced such blood lust once before, and that was when she had just changed, but this feeling. This lust for blood…and for something else had been so different. It had been something that she had never experienced before.

"You wish for my blood." It was a statement, not a question.

Sakura didn't reply. She just stayed silent, motionless.

Green eyes and black ones stared deeply into one another's; one, confused, while another was unreadable.

His gaze never leaving Sakura's eyes, he murmured, "I will not resist."

Those words practically knocked the breath right out of Sakura. She knew what it meant. He wanted her to bite him. He wanted to take the risk, so he could become a vampire. So he could gain the power and the immortality of a vampire. But she wouldn't do it. Sakura was firm in her decision. She would never change Itachi.

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Naruto was going berserk, Sasuke was furious, Sai lost all his emotions, again, and Kakashi was silent. They had only left her for less then an hour. In that short time period, Sakura had gone missing.

"F---!!!!" screamed Naruto, his eyes turning scarlet again. The blonde was blaming himself. He believed that it was his entire fault. "If I didn't lose control, we wouldn't have had to leave Sakura-chan!" Angry tears rose in his eyes as Naruto crushed another boulder with his fist.

Sasuke's eyes were red, and a dark aura surrounded him. When they had arrived at where Sakura had once lain, they had found it empty of all life. She had disappeared, and Sasuke was livid to discover a trace of Itachi's chakra lingering.

Sai had totally blanked out when he heard Sasuke roar that Itachi had been here. Uchiha Itachi had seemingly taken Sakura.

Kakashi was bewildered. Sakura was a vampire, and now Itachi had kidnapped her? The silver-haired man couldn't help but blame himself. He was team captain. He was in charge, and his team's lives were his responsibility. He had failed as a captain, as a friend, and as a father figure.

All four had been shocked when the creatures had said that Sakura was a vampire. They had been utterly stunned by the news. Now that Sakura was missing, the fact that she was a vampire seemed the least of their worries. No matter what happened, Sakura was their teammate, vampire or not.

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**In Konoha:**

"Hokage-sama!" Said woman raised her head from her paperwork. The one who had called her was a Genma.

"Genma? Is there a problem?" she asked.

The man nervously rolled the senbon in his mouth before answering, "Last night, 4 people were killed in Konoha."

The blonde didn't look impressed. Death wasn't unusual in a shinobi village. "And your point is?"

The Jounin grimaced before murmuring, "All of them died through blood loss, but the only wound they had was a bite mark on their neck. All of their blood was drained from their body. Hokage-sama. Do you think it could be a huge spider summon that did this?"

Genma was alarmed to see the color drain from her face. _Vampires!_ She thought in horror. Quickly snapping out of her reverie, she snapped out, "Shizune!!!" Tsunade's black-haired apprentice quickly hurried in.

"Tsunade-sama?" She asked worriedly.

"Send a message to Team 7 at once, using the fastest hawk we have! Tell them to immediately return to Konoha at once! This is a major crisis!!!!!"

Shizune didn't need anymore urging, she ran out to do as she was told at once.

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A few hours had passed since the incident with Itachi and Sakura. The only reason Sakura hadn't runaway yet was because of the words that Itachi had uttered.

"I have one of those 'creatures' here. I believe it is the son of the chief."

What in the world are you talking about?

"The creatures that attacked you. I have one in confinement here, and it is the son of the chief." he had repeated.

Itachi had studied with minor interest as a look of horror crossed her features. No matter how many times he looked, he couldn't help but enjoy the look of shock on her face every time she was surprised.

YOU CAPTURED THE CHIEFS SON!!!! YOU DO KNOW THAT THE 'CREATURES' ARE WEREWOLVES RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY MAKE HORRIBLE ENEMIES!!

"Yes."

"…"

"…"

There had been that uncomfortable, pregnant silence at Itachi's soft-spoken 'yes'. Sakura could not believe that Itachi had the chief's son. The chief was the leader of the whole entire werewolf tribe!!! Impossible as it was, Itachi was now showing her the way towards the chief's son after making her wait for a few infuriating hours. He had left to inform Kisame where he was.

Itachi walked carelessly in front of Sakura, as if he wasn't worried that she would try to kill him. Sakura was more then capable. At the moment, the two were heading down a flight of stairs and the farther they went down, the more dark, damp and unpleasant the area got.

Finally arriving at the bottom, the two headed off towards a cell that was practically encased in multiple jutsu. In the middle, the vampire could barely distinguish the figure of a half changed werewolf from the suffocating darkness around him.

_Uchiha must have used some sort of technique to make this place so dark. I can hardly see anything, even with my eyes._

**Hm, but enough about that, this stench is horribly unmistakable. It's defiantly a werewolf.**

The werewolf seemed to be unconscious, but knowing Itachi and Kisame, she was surprised that it actually had all its limbs. Gathering chakra to her hand, Sakura created a glow that was just bright enough for her to illuminate the werewolf's face. As the crescent moon mark on his forehead became clear from the faint light, Sakura's whole body tensed as a snarl rose in her throat, rippling from her into the silence.

All logic was gone from her mind. All she could think of now was the werewolf with a mark that signified it being a 'royal' of it's kind. The instant hostility and absolute murderous hate, that was a vampire's instinct, caused her to lose all her morals. All she cared about was destroying this thing. She had to kill it.

"Kill it!!" she snarled as the furious vampire turned to glare at Itachi with violet eyes. He fought it slightly at first, but then submitted to her gaze.

The Akatsuki covered his mouth and nose before pulling a lever. Thick, deadly smog rolled out into the cell, chocking and killing the werewolf in a matter of a few seconds. By then, Sakura and Itachi were out of the cell and into safety. (A/N: Werewolves are immune to diseases, but they are not immune to poison. Vampires on the other hand, are immune to both.)

As they left the cell, Sakura's head cleared, and she realized what she had done. As pain and horrible cries of fear bellowed in her head, she screwed her eyes shut, and rolled into a ball as she waited for the phantom and the pain to fade.

**You killed the son of the werewolf's chief.**

_I know._

**You do know that this means war between our kinds right?**

_I know…_

**BAKA!!!!**

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_**Hello!!! Chocolat-chan the Beta here once again! Um, sorry I didn't get the chapter out immediately back to Layla-chan… My internet went and DIED ON ME! It was horrible… -shudder-**_

_**Let's see what's gonna happen between the two races… Maybe something EXCITING!!!**_

_**And will Sakura REALLY be able to resist Itachi? (If it was me and Neji in that situation… HUHUHU… -dirty thoughts-)**_

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**This is Layla! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!! Oh, and if you haven't read the author note at the top, please do, it's important.**


	13. Chapter 12

XII

Three Years or Three Days?

**A/N: Sorry for the late update...I've been having family problems and such...**

**Recap: ****Hm, but enough about that, this stench is horribly unmistakable. It's defiantly a werewolf.**

**The werewolf seemed to be unconscious, but knowing Itachi and Kisame, she was surprised that it actually had all its limbs. Gathering chakra to her hand, Sakura created a glow that was just bright enough for her to illuminate the werewolf's face. As the crescent moon mark on his forehead became clear from the faint light, Sakura's whole body tensed as a snarl rose and rippled in the silence. **

**All logic was gone from her mind. All she could think of now was the werewolf with a mark that signified it being a 'royal' of it's kind. The instant hostility and absolute murderous hate, that was a vampire's instinct, caused her to lose all her morals. All she cared about was destroying this thing. She had to kill it. **

"**Kill it!!" She snarled as the furious vampire turned to glare at Itachi with violet eyes. Itachi hesitated for a second, before giving in. **

**The Akatsuki covered his mouth and nose before pulling a lever. Thick, deadly smog rolled out into the cell, chocking and killing the werewolf in a matter of a few seconds. By then, Sakura and Itachi were out of the cell and into safety. **_**(A/N: Werewolves are immune to diseases, they are not immune to poison. But vampires are immune to both.)**_

**As they left the cell, Sakura's head cleared, and she realized what she had done as pain and horrible cries of pain bellowed in her head. Screwing her eyes shut, Sakura rolled into a ball as she waited for the phantom and the pain to fade. **

**You killed the son of the werewolf chief.**

_**I know.**_

**You do know that this means war between our kinds right?**

_**I know…**_

**BAKA!!**

Itachi was watching the kunoichi with faintly curious eyes. She seemed to be frozen in shock at what she had done. The Uchiha was now certain that she had the power to control people, but at the same time, there seemed to be an aftershock, though what triggered it was still a mystery to him. He knew that if she wanted, she could injure, kill, and or escape from him, though he was certain, to some extent, that he could make it difficult for her. The incident with her bloodlust was a key aspect to the reason why he was still alive. Although his influence and affect over her was limited and minute on a scale, it was enough for him to be satisfied; for the moment at least.

"Itachi-san. I will be leaving."

There was silence and only silence after Sakura's sudden statement. The Uchiha showed no reaction to her words. He seemed apparently unchanged. Finally, the man opened his mouth to murmur, "Stay." It was not a request.

The pink-haired vampire frowned slightly at his imposing manner, but let it pass as an Uchiha macho thing. Itachi knew that she would leave. He knew for a fact that his words had unaltered her opinion, as her words to him. But for him to gain her trust, and with her trust, the vampire community's trust, the black-haired missing-nin knew that he required more time. Though it seemed impossible with the way things were turning out, there was still a way for him to make her stay with him for as long as needed.

While all these thoughts flashed in his mind, each idea, and each factor carefully studied, Itachi came up with a simple plan. A hazardous one, which if he failed, he would most likely lose his life, or at the least his objective, but the plan, if profitable, could lead to the united forces of the vampires and the Akatsuki. It would also give him possession of Sakura, his jade-eyed distraction.

Sakura's emerald eyes were gazing precariously at Itachi's own. They were still black, but to her surprise, they changed to red. As Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan spun, they dragged Sakura into their crimson depths.

"In this world, I control everything. From space, matter and time… You will stay here in this world with me for 3 years starting now…"

Trapping someone in his dojutsu for '3 years' would probably drain his whole chakra supply, but he was planning on breaking her into becoming completely loyal to him in those 3 days/3 years. She would be his.

O

O

O

It had already been a few hours since discovering that Sakura was missing, but there were still no leads to where she might have been taken. Pakkun had been able to track Sakura's and Itachi's scent for a while, but according to the small summoning, the trail abruptly vanished at a random given area.

"F--K!" swore Naruto as he glowered at nothing in particular. The rest of the team was of the same mind. Kakashi was debating on whether or not to go back to Konoha and give his report, or to stay and look for Sakura a bit longer. The choice was made for him when the fastest messenger hawk, Aisu, flew down from the sky to land on Kakashi's outstretched arm. The silver-haired man quickly opened the scroll to read the message that was important enough for it to be sent by the valuable hawk.

After a swift glance, Kakashi came to a snapped decision. "We're returning to Konoha." His voice left no room for arguments.

"NO!" growled Naruto. "WE ARE NOT LEAVING SAKURA!!"

The other two moved to stand behind Naruto, giving him silent support. Once again, a look of intense pain flared in Kakashi's eyes, before fading off to an empty look of someone who just wanted to sleep his worries away.

"We have no choice. Tsunade-sama has called for our team to do an immediate 'code 9'." 'Code 9' meant that there is a crisis in Konoha. No matter the circumstances, return to Konoha at once. "Itachi can't be found without additional help, especially without information." With hopeless, guilty eyes, the team discontentedly left for Konoha.

O

O

O

While Sakura and Itachi spent their days in a genjutsu and the rest of team 7 hurried home, Tsunade worried. She wasn't just 'worried,' she was WORRIED. The female Hokage could feel the worry and tension that was being expelled from herself in waves. As the Hokage, she knew that she had to do something to stop the vampires in Konoha, but it was impossible without Sakura. She would have never guessed that a GROUP of vampires would disobey the council and the royals. But once again the world proved her wrong. The vampire community had sworn to not bother Konoha, but it seemed that a group of the young rebelling 'teenagers' had dared disobey the unwritten law.

There was a giant bang, and a tremor in her office as four figures suddenly appeared in her office. They were the male members of team 7. The four had unanimously agreed to use 'that' technique. The technique was a transportation jutsu, but one that allowed the user or users to travel great distances. Unfortunately, it could only be done with the use of the Kyuubi's chakra, and even then, all four of them were practically drained of most of their chakra.

"Where's Sakura?" Team 7 noticed a tinge of panic in her voice as she swept the area helplessly. Lowering their gazes in shame, they gave their mission report in a dead, monotone voice. Tsunade turned paler and paler at each word noted, and after they finished, she grabbed a scroll and started to write furiously. The ink flew in the air thanks to her hasty writing, and everyone but Sai got splattered with flecks of black ink.

Finishing the letter, she quickly made about 100 hand signs and then slammed her hand on her desk. Black seals, like the ones Itachi had done, flowed from her hands, wrapping around the scroll, and with a flash of light, disappeared.

"Baa-chan, did you know that Sakura was a vampire?"

"…I…did."

O

O

O

**At The Castle**

"Suki-sama?" murmured Tenshi. His black eyes slightly worried.

With the scroll that was sent by Tsunade in his hand, Suki answered, "I know. I'm leaving today."

O

O

O

A howl of anguish, despair and fury rang out in the mountains. A dark-haired man with the blue crescent mark on his forehead, marking him as a royal werewolf, swiped a gash down the trunk of a tree, reducing it to a shamble of branches and strips of what remained of the trunk.

The blue crescent moon on a royal's forehead was like a third eye, an eye that connected all royal werewolves. He had seen the vampire through the 'eye', and seen her use her power to kill his son; the one who had been next in line to be the chief of the clan. The leech with pink hair had killed his son.

O

O

O

For a second, nothing seemed to be changed. She was still in the same hall with Itachi standing near her. Everything was normal as far as she could tell, but a shudder ran down her spine as a frightening thought blazed through her mind. Eyes wide, Sakura sprinted down the hall towards the window at the end of the hall. With a gasp of horror, she gazed blankly at the sky. Where there should have been the sun, was the moon. The moon might have been fine, but it wasn't the usual silver color, but the crimson red of the moon in the world of the Sharingan.

Her face pallid, she gasped out, "What have you done? WHAT THE F--K HAVE YOU DONE?!"

Itachi's gaze was callous, expressionless. "Two years, 364 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes left…"

O

O

O

At the Konoha gate, two figures suddenly emerged. One was a blonde-haired young boy, and the other was a tall ash-haired young man. Both were more beautiful then any human possible, except for maybe Haruno Sakura…

The ANBU who had seen them enter, quickly transported himself to a nervous and impatient Tsunade. Kakashi, Sasuke, Sai, and Naruto were still there in her office as well, though they were all sitting down instead of pacing like a few minutes before.

"They're here, Hokage-sama," the ANBU informed, before disappearing as quickly as he appeared.

"Whom am I waiting for?" asked Sasuke, a wary look in his eyes. Before Tsunade could reply, a curt knock and the opening of the door silenced everyone. A look of absolute surprise was on everyone's face as their gaze fell on the two 'angels'.

"Suki-sama, Kamui-san," Tsunade greeted.

Suki smiled weakly, his usual grin absent from his face. "Tsunade-san, I know you have a crisis on your hands here, but our first priority is to save Sakura-chan."

"I understand. Please, please save her."

With a resolute look on his face, Kamui murmured, "We will bring Sakura-hime back safely."

A rather shamed look crossed Suki's face. "I'm really sorry Tsunade-san…I apologize on the behalf of our whole community."

Before Team 7 or Tsunade could say anything, the two vampires vanished.

O

O

O

It had been already a year in the Sharingan world. Itachi never did anything but spend time with her silently. At first, Sakura had tried to attack him, but found that all her 'powers' were gone. She'd felt so helpless, like a newborn baby. As she spent her days, usually taking walks out in the large forest, in the Sharingan premises, with Itachi, she felt the nervous fear and wariness pass. She found herself unconsciously comforted around him. Sometimes, Itachi would leave, or disappear. Whenever that happened, fear and hysterics would constrict Sakura. Even though he always returned, Sakura couldn't help but harbor her intense terror of being abandoned. The first time it happened, she had thought that he had left her, to stay alone without company in this world, where she was helpless. This world without life, empty, a void with only a crimson moon, would drive her insane without him, and she almost did go insane.

**Flashback**

**Overcome by terror and panic, Sakura went through the whole forest, mansion, and the surrounding grounds frantically. When he was nowhere to be found, Sakura fell to her knees in defeat. Silver tears welled up in her eyes despite herself. And she cried. Fear was her motivation. The idea of spending the remaining years alone, without any company, overwhelmed her.**

_**Is this what death is like?**_** she thought weakly. Even Inner was gone from her mind. Alone...**

**As she sobbed in panic, the kunoichi didn't notice the silent male standing behind her. His crimson eyes bore into the vampire's shaking form. It had only been a month, but she was already so attached to him. She was complete only when he was near. The vampire named Sakura needed him to survive. Never before had Itachi felt needed. Sasuke had looked up to him, and admired him, but didn't truly need him. This female was the first and only one to truthfully need his life. Not his power, but his presence.**

**A smirk graced his lips as he reveled in this knowledge. Sakura… Sakura would belong to him only. She would need nothing else but him. **

**O**

**O**

**O**

It happened again. Itachi had left her awareness. Once again, the fear tightened over her heart, and despite the fact that he was her jailor, Sakura called for him.

"Uchiha-san! Uchiha-san!!"

There was no answer. Itachi watched the pink-haired beauty call for him frantically. "Uchiha-san!!"

Sakura knew that he would return, but even then…

"Uchiha-san!!" she screamed.

Once again, Sakura fell to her knees, murmuring his name weakly. "Uchiha-san, Uchiha-san, U-Uchiha-san… U-Uchiha…s-sama…"

In the shadows, Itachi smirked triumphantly. _Uchiha-sama._

"Sakura," he purred darkly, as he stepped into view.

Sakura's head shot up, tears streaming down her face as she cried out in relief, "Uchiha-san!"

"Thank you… thank you... Please, don't go again. I-I can't take it anymore… E-every time you leave…" she faded off, as another sob choked her voice.

Emotionless eyes bore into her trembling form. "Call me Uchiha-sama, and serve me, and only me, loyally for all eternity. If you fulfill these requirements, I will never leave."

Overcome by desperation, she recklessly agreed. Itachi smirked. "A vampire's promise is binding." Is all he spoke.

O

O

O

With a gasp, Sakura lurched awake from the genjutsu. Panting in shock, Sakura glanced around the room, and noticed that the few changes that she made to the decoration of the genjutsu room was naturally not there anymore.

"Sakura…" Said girl hurriedly glanced up to the voice of her master. The man she couldn't live without, the man who she had sworn loyalty to, and the man who owned her heart. She knew that Itachi only thought of her as a tool, a possession, but it didn't matter to her. In those 'three years' Sakura had sworn herself eagerly to the man named Uchiha Itachi.

"Uchiha-sama!" Sakura called out in concern as her master swayed on his feet. With a burst of speed and strength that she had lived without for, what seemed like three years, Sakura steadied Itachi. With worried eyes, Sakura gently laid him down on his bed, and devotedly brushed his silky black hair out of his face.

Itachi sighed as he slowly closed his eyes, completely exhausted. "Sakura, inform me immediately if a stranger comes into the premises." And with that, Itachi fell into unconsciousness.

The pink-haired kunoichi, after covering Itachi with the sheets, gracefully stood up, and headed out into the hall. She frowned, and narrowed her eyes slightly as she felt a presence coming near her master's land.

O

O

O

Now, before we go any further, there were a few things about the Akatsuki that needed to be explained. Tobi/Madara killed Pein and Konan a few years ago, when Sakura was 17. Pein and his loyal 'angel' had tried to monopolize the organization in secret, but Madara had discovered their plan, which ultimately led to their death. After that incident, Akatsuki was made up of six members. Itachi, Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, Deidara, and finally Tobi. (**A/N: Yes, I've kept many of them alive…but I'm wondering, should I bring Sasori back to life too?)**

Itachi ultimately killed Madara, whose goal was still unclear to the rest of the members, when Madara had attempted, and almost succeeded, in 'plucking' out Itachi's eyes. At the moment, Itachi's eyes were still becoming worse, but with regular healing, blindness was prevented. Now, Itachi was the leader of Akatsuki, with the new objective of Akatsuki being, to seal the nine bijuu inside the members of the Akatsuki. The members were constantly looking for promising individuals to complete the group. With the death of Tobi/Madara, four more members were needed.

O

O

O

The presence was familiar…but Sakura couldn't clearly remember who it was. (**A/N: Sakura is feeling the presence of Suki, but not Kamui because of his gift.**) She hissed irritability at the realization that she would have to wake up her master when he was in such a deep sleep. Glaring at the direction she felt the presence from, Sakura walked back in to the room with light steps. With regret written over her face, she gently shook his slumbering figure.

Itachi opened one dull black eye to inform Sakura that he was awake and listening.

"I'm sorry Uchiha-sama, but I'm afraid a person or two have entered the premises."

Completely drained of chakra, Itachi knew that he wouldn't be able to fight. "Sakura. I need your chakra."

Without any hesitation, Sakura laid her cool hand on either side of his head and gently started the chakra transfer. This medical jutsu was extremely difficult to accomplish, and at the moment only Sakura, Itachi and Tsunade knew about it due to the fact that Sakura was the one who had created the jutsu.

O

O

O

"Suki-sama. Sakura-hime is in that building."

"I know. Should we sneak in, or go in through the front door?"

"…"

Suki laughed at Kamui's silent reply to his question. "I'll take that as a, 'we should use the front door because it's polite', ok?"

"…"

O

O

O

**Sakura!!** screamed Inner in delight.

_Oh, it's you…_

**It's been what? Three years? Three days? Didn't you miss me at all?**

_Who would?_

**B--ch…**

_Right back at you._

O

O

O

**BETA's note**

**Awesome. LAYLA-CHAN FINALLY UPDATED. I think we should all clap for her. –laughs-**

**Ah, it was hard for me… One of my old friends/classmate (from kindergarten up) died in his sleep on the 2nd… I'll be going to his Wake Service on Sunday and his Funeral Service on Monday. It's weird without him. –sigh-**

**Anyhow, if you think the dumb thing with FF eating people's place holders and adding in unneeded spaces is dumb, raise you hand. –raises hand-**

**Anonymous Reviews:**

**GOLDEN SABORTOOTH: Hello! Thank you so much for reviewing, and I'm sorry it took so long for me to update...there were some family problems, so yeah...**

**DRAGON'S CRYSTAL EYES: Thank you for reviewing, and the answer to both your questions is yes! I'm sorry for the late update.**

**RYUUSOUL: Thank you for reviewing, and for the information! I'll try my best to use them as accurately as possible. Oh, and I'm really sorry for the late update...**

**DRAGON'S DIMOND HEART: Thank you for reviewing! The answer to your question is yes! Oh, and thank you for the information! I'm so sorry for the late update as well.**

**RYUUSOUL: Thank you for reviewing! And I think it's a very unique and great idea! I'll use as much of it as possible! Thank you once again, and sorry for the late update.**

**SILVER SHEWOLF:Wahh! You made me blush...Well, thank you for the compliment and the review, and I hope you liked this chapter, even though it's a bit boring... Oh, and I'm very sorry for the late update.**

**pinkPIXIE: Sorry, so sorry...I had some family problems, so yeah...Oh, and thank you so much for reviewing! Sorry once again for the late update!**

**DRAGON'S GEWL WINGS: Thank You for reviewing! I hope you liked this chapter, even though it's a bit boring! Sorry about the late update...Oh, and I'm going to put in the vampire form in the next chapter or so.**

**PINK CAT CREATURE: ...hehe...Sorry about the late update...Well anyways, I hope you liked this chapter even though it was a bit boring, and Thank you for reviewing!**

**DRAGON'S JEWL WINGS: Thank you for reviewing, and I hope you liked this chapter, even though it was sort of boring...Oh, and I'm really sorry for the late update!**


	14. Cocoon Alert

**Hello! Um...this isn't a chapter, but I just want everyone to know that the first chapter of Cocoon is out!**

**I'll replace this with the real chapter as soon as possible. Thank You! **


	15. Chapter 13

XIII

Return

_**A/N: I'm really, really sorry for the late update. I've been really sick, and in the hospital with a fever of 106. But here's the chapter that I've promised. Once again, sorry for the late update. -Layla**_

**Recap: The presence was familiar…but Sakura couldn't clearly remember who it was. ****(A/N: Sakura is feeling the presence of Suki, but not Kamui because of his gift.)**** She hissed irritability at the realization that she would have to wake up her master when he was in such a deep sleep. Glaring at the direction she felt the presence from, Sakura walked back in to the room with light steps. With regret written over her face, she gently shook his slumbering figure. **

**Itachi opened one dull black eye to inform Sakura that he was awake and listening. **

"**I'm sorry Uchiha-sama, but I'm afraid a person or two have entered the premises." **

**Completely drained of chakra, Itachi knew that he wouldn't be able to fight. "Sakura. I need your chakra." **

**Without any hesitation, Sakura laid her cool hand on either side of his head and gently started the chakra transfer. This medical jutsu was extremely difficult to accomplish, and at the moment only Sakura, Itachi and Tsunade knew about it due to the fact that Sakura was the one who had created the jutsu. **

**O**

**O**

**O**

"**Suki-sama, Sakura-hime is in that building." **

"**I know. Should we sneak in, or go in through the front door?" **

"…"

**Suki laughed at Kamui's silent reply to his question. "I'll take that as a, 'we should use the front door because it's polite', ok?" **

"…"

**O**

**O**

**O**

**Sakura!! s****creamed Inner in delight.**

_**Oh, it's you…**_

**It's been what? Three years? Three days? Didn't you miss me at all?**

_**Who would?**_

**B--ch…**

_**Right back at you.**_

O

O

O

Suki smiled unnaturally beautifully as he practically skipped to the main door. Kamui was more subdued, following Suki like a shadow. _Rata tap tapaty tap tap tap knock tapaty rap tap knock tap tap…_ Kamui sighed, "Suki-sama, I'm sure three simple knocks are enough…" The blonde-haired vampire ignored him, and went on with his knocking. The knight class vampire a few steps behind him shook his head with a ghost of a smile as Suki's knocks started to sound like the cancan. In fact, much to his amusement, Suki was calmly humming the tune as well.

With a quick jerk, the door was opened, and standing in the doorway was Sakura. There was a slightly irritated scowl on her face, but quickly vanished to looks of surprised pleasure when she noticed who were standing in front of her. "Suki! Kamui!" Before Suki could respond with a joyful, 'Sakura-chan!!' A deep, cold, smooth voice called out, "Sakura."

The pink-haired vampire blinked, before politely stepping back, to make way for Itachi. Suki's smile flickered, before fading as he gazed at Itachi with a blank face. The tension between the two was cold. Where Itachi's reason for intently staring was unknown, Suki was eyeing him with the goal of figuring the cryptic man out.

"So. You're the one who took Sakura-chan."

Itachi's face was smooth and empty of emotions like usual. "…"

"You've done something to her. I'm sure you're not going to deny it. Anyone can tell by looking at her that she's changed impossibly in the last three to four days."

The crimson-eyed male did not deny Suki's accusations for he knew that everything the blonde royal said was the truth.

If possible, Suki's face became more frigid, and the air practically sparked with the friction of the vampires' increasing rage. The royal was clearly proving that he wasn't all fun and games. No matter his appearance and his actions, Suki was an ancient and noble immortal, who could easily kill Itachi on a whim.

"From what Tenshi-san, our gifted 'news reporter' you could call him, has informed me, you, and ultimately all of Akatsuki wish to gain the support of the vampire community. You plan on giving us support against the werewolves if we unite our forces? Am I wrong?" asked Suki coolly.

"Everything you have said is the truth. Your information is quite reliable."

"It should be," was all Suki voiced out.

There was a silent pause as both continued to analyze one another. Sakura, who had been momentarily forgotten, looked between the two nervously. As her gaze grew more troubled, it locked, by chance, with Kamui's own eyes. With his gift, Sakura had almost forgotten about him entirely. He wasn't invisible, but no one seemed to notice him, and when Sakura concentrated, she could make out a faint vile of chakra like energy that masked his whole body. Before she could do anything, Suki and Itachi's conversation took a rather risky turn.

Eyes narrowed, Suki stated, "You made a mistake. You don't seem to realize the extent of the connection between a royal and his/her subjects. It is thicker then blood, thicker then loyalty or family. Some say that this unbreakable bond can even rival love itself."

The words rang out in the near silence like an omen, it was clear that the blonde royal was frigidly angry with Itachi. "But nether the less, I will consent to your propositions. Do not be mistaken human; we are doing it only for Sakura-chan. I can see the bond that connects her to you. You owe her your life for every vampire in existence."

O

O

O

After studying Sakura again and again, much to her annoyance, he concluded that there was no difference in Sakura at all, other then her apparent loyalty towards Itachi that is. Finally, Suki decided that it was Stockholm syndrome that was causing Sakura to act so weird towards the Uchiha. Biting his lips lightly in annoyance, the royal asked, "Sakura-chan… Are you really going to return to the Uchiha after this?"

The pink-haired vampire faltered in her steps, but quickly regained her pace as she replied, "I'm not sure. He just ordered me to stay as long as I needed. There weren't any restrictions or limits at all."

After the deal was struck with Itachi, he sent Sakura to leave with Suki and Kamui for Konoha. "Take care of your work. Do what you please," was all he said as he turned away to his paperwork once again.

Sakura felt another pang of pain strike her heart at the memory of the silent back of the Uchiha. He had seemed completely uncaring of Sakura leaving that she couldn't help but feel abandoned. Lonely, even.

Taking a shaky breath, Sakura told herself firmly, _I am Haruno Sakura, Hime of Command, and one of the six royal vampires in existence. I will not be weakened by a single man's uncaring actions._ That was what she had told herself, but...

"Suki? What is our business in Konoha anyways?"

Kamui took the liberty to explain. "It seems that a small group of newborn vampires have broken the contract with Konoha that was made with the 1st Hokage since the beginning of your village."

"They disregarded a vampire law?! …Hm…this should be interesting."

As the gates of Konoha became visible, the three slowed down their pace to a 'light' sprint. At the gate, Sakura could faintly see the figures of Tsunade, Shizune, and Team Seven. They immediately started to sprint in her direction as they noticed the group.

"SAKURA-CHAN!!" Sakura was slammed with the hug of a tearful Naruto. She could see the crystal tears fall from his eyes to slide down and drip off his nose. Warm, strong arms encircled her figure, but there was something different about the atmosphere of Konoha. Instead of the usual cheerfully, busy village, there was a dark aura of death and fear.

"Thank Kami that you're safe and here Sakura! We can talk later though; there is a urgent issue that demands your attention!"

As the group quickly entered the gates, Sakura could see that all the civilians were inside their homes and that all the shinobi were patrolling the streets warily. "I'm sorry Tsunade-san… It seems that the issue has gotten dire."

"I don't care for apologizes. I will completely forgive you if you get rid of them."

"Of course…" the blonde-haired vampire murmured.

As they entered into the heart of the village, a sudden chill swept down Tsunade, Shizune and Team 7's backs. Suddenly, four vampires lightly leaped down from the roofs. Their eyes were blood red like the blood that dripped from their shirts. The human shinobi stiffened, and drew their weapons while the vampires calmly stood without fear.

Sakura icily stared them down, while murmuring in an alluring voice full of power and confidence, "Such messy eaters. Hn. Disgrace."

The four growled angrily at the comment while taking a threatening step toward them. Suki noticed that they were untrained vampires, vampires that were 'abandoned' after the change by the one who turned them. These vampires usually were loners, traveling the land in the shadows.

His eyes emotionless, Suki stated, "You must have noticed the mark of sanctuary on the gates of this city. All vampires—newly turned or not, know what that mark means. Yet, you have disregarded those marks, and have terrorized this city."

The handsome, flame haired male bared his fangs while hissing, "We care not for your rules! We have no leader, no master! We are free to do whatever we want!" The other three, consisting of two more males and a female growled their agreement.

A look of intense rage flashed across Kamui's face. "Do not speak to Suki-sama and Sakura-hime in that way!" The red haired calmly licked the blood off his fingers as he completely ignored Kamui.

"Stop these acts at once, and accept your punishment. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to eliminate you four." The usual cheerful Suki gave out this chilly statement. Even Kamui was slightly unnerved by the frigid atmosphere around him. Even though Suki was normally cheerful, happy and childish, he was truly a vampire of great power and wisdom. He had been through more things then most, and when situations called for it, he could become merciless, sometimes even cruel.

"You can't kill us!" hissed the female.

"We're royals. There is nothing we can't do—including executing you." **(A/N: That rhymes!)**

Snarling in wrath, the four suddenly leaped at the two royals. Sakura sighed, and coolly ran her arm through one of the males, and grabbed his heart. With one light squeeze, the heart exploded letting blood gush out of it. You see, the only way to kill a vampire, that isn't a royal, is by suicide, werewolf wounds, or through the attack of a royal. Vampires have no blood but for the blood in their heart. Only a royal and a werewolf can get through the boundary to the organ. Once the heart is wounded, blood escapes from it, leading to death instantly.

In what seemed like in less then a few seconds, all four were dead. Their bodies quickly decaying into rich black soil within seconds, leaving only the cloths that they had worn.

"That was easy…"

Sakura observed the crimson liquid dripping from her hand blankly, and slowly brought it to her lips. Tsunade, Shizune and Team 7 stared in fearful fascination as Suki and Sakura erotically licked the blood from their hands. For some reason, all the humans were blushing furiously as the beautiful royals consumed the remaining blood. To them, every lick was incredibly lustful. Much to males' dismay, they felt their pants tightening at the display of thirsty desire for blood.

Suddenly, Kamui rushed in front of Sakura, and caught the kunai that had been heading in her direction. The two royals looked up with faint curiosity, and Tsunade observed that there wasn't any fear or shock in their eyes at all. She herself had immediately gone into a defensive pose, like the rest of the shinobi.

The whole group, but Kamui, had completely not noticed the arrival of a mob of civilians and shinobi. Their eyes gleamed with fear, horror, and loathing. Kamui's usual calm, unexpressive face was twisted into a snarl of rage. The glare in his eyes clearly said, 'stay back or else'. Tsunade's face hardened. The mob hesitated at her furious expression.

"What in the world is going on?" she hissed softly. Though her voice was soft, it was dangerous. It was like the quiet before a storm. But before she could explode, the crowd parted to reveal the figures of the two elders/advisors of Konoha.

"Tsunade."

Said Hokage's eyes widened, before narrowing wrathfully. "What. In. The. World. Is. Going. On?" she asked in a clipped tone.

"We're just here to chase out the monsters." the female elder smoothly replied.

Naruto snarled, and would have attacked her, if Kakashi hadn't quickly stopped him. The silver-haired shinobi shot the blonde a warning glance, before turning to the elders. "This is Sakura, Suki, and Kamui. They're not here to harm the village. In fact, they came today to help rid of the village of the vampires."

The female elder's face was prim and proper. Her face lacked any expression as she said, "It was wrong of the Hokage to have kept the matter of the vampires a secret from the whole village. Tsunade, you have put the village in great danger by allowing in three extra blood-sucking monsters."

"SAKURA-CHAN IS NOT A MONSTER!! YOU'RE THE ONE THAT'S A MONSTER! YOU OLD HAG!! GO TO HELL!!" Naturally, the one who screamed this out was Naruto.

"For once, I agree with you dobe," Sasuke grunted out. Sai and Kakashi nodded in silent agreement. Backed by the support of four of the most powerful shinobi in the world, Tsunade stepped up with confidence to say, "Naruto is right. Sakura is my apprentice. She is a valuable kunoichi of Konoha; you have no right to call her a monster. Anyways, these vampires have been keeping Konoha safe from the forces of others of their kind for many years. Without their protection, bloodthirsty vampires like the ones that terrorized us for the last few days would have easily overrun Konoha. Can you possible claim that you can drive them out, these species who are so much more superior and powerful then our own?'

All the faces of the shinobi in the mob hardened, and Tsunade realized that she had made a grave mistake. She had just damaged the egos of all the shinobi that weren't on her side. "We can. And we will. We do not need the help of these monsters to protect ourselves!" growled one shinobi. A murmur of agreement swept through the crowd. Finally, the objects of their argument, stepped up speak. Sakura, Suki, and Kamui stood in a clearing, surrounded by all the faces of the angry members of Konoha. The pink-haired kunoichi observed the clear murderous intent directed at them with a bored expression. Suki sighed, and raised his shoulders in a casual shrug. "Well, I guess that's too bad for you then. We'll leave like you want, and we'll take the mark of sanctuary with us as well. From this day on, Konoha is a free hunting ground to all vampires."

"Wait! Wait Suki-sama! What are you saying?! You can't do this to us!" There was a complete look of panic on Tsunade's face.

"Of course, you, and all those who are on our side will have a private mark of sanctuary yourself. Those who agree with Tsunade, come." This time, it was Sakura who said this. There was some shuffling in the crowd as the Konoha twelve, friends and comrades and civilian who believed and loved Sakura stepped up. Looking at the rather large group, Sakura's eyes softened.

"From this day on, all of you will have the complete protection of Haruno Sakura! I Haruno Sakura mark all of you as property of mine. All those that dare harm them will be faced with my wrath!" With her speech finished, Sakura raised her arms up to the sky. The sun seemed to be cupped in her hands, then the rays that shone from the sun burst out, and hit all those that had pledged their loyalty to her. With a many thump, _everyone_ fell to the ground in a deep sleep.

"It's done," the pink-haired royal murmured faintly.

"Yes. Let's go Sakura-chan. We have a war to fight."

O

O

O

An hour after the whole village fell into a deep sleep, they woke up in a panic, the group that had been blessed by Sakura found a silvery mark on their neck, that looked like large, parallel, silver slashes from a claw, the mark of sanctuary.

An hour later, the same happened in Suna, and in a few other countries. Sakura, Suki and Kamui had traveled to all the villages and gathered all those that had promised their allegiance to them. Without their blessings, they would have been in danger of being turned into werewolves themselves, but at the same time, it would have been impossible to mark everyone as their own because it can only be done with their complete consent.

O

O

O

**Three years later…**

"Sakura," the man with crimson eyes called.

"Hm?"

"We're going to Konoha. There is a major werewolf infection there," the same man replied.

"Konoha?! Yay, I've always wanted to go there!" the pink-haired royal cheered.

The man, Itachi, let his crimson eyes fade away to onyx as he gazed intently at Sakura. "You were born there, and lived most of your life there."

Sakura looked up with surprise. "Really…? I forgot… Itachi-sama? When will you give me my memory back?"

"…"

Patiently, she waited for a reply because she knew that sometimes it took him awhile to reply.

"Soon."

Satisfied with his answer, she nodded her head in consent, and skipped over to the closet to pull out her Akatsuki cloak. Suddenly, she froze. "Itachi-sama…" She called out in a hushed whisper. "There are two werewolves outside…"

**I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.**

_Inner, shut up!_

**I don't want to die. I don't… Hey, that brunette is cute!**

_I'm going to ignore you now._

**Outer? …Outer? ...Outer?!**

_What?!_

**Is that Deidara being chased by the werewolves?**

_Ah shit._

(Deidara) "HELP ME!!"

O

O

O

BETA'S Note



YESSSS!! Chapter from Layla-chan! –parties- What an unexpected twist! I'm getting oh so excited!! I'm sorry if this came out any later than I wanted—I didn't check my email for a day (so it took longer than normal, since I can get chapters back in the same day).

My, my, Sakura's memory has been taken by Itachi? What a weasel! –laughs at own bad name pun-

I just finished Twilight (Stephanie Meyer) and I'm going through withdrawal… TTxTT My mom and I are pillaging Barnes and Noble for the next two. Not only that, but I was able to a whole lot done, like finish Cocoon's picture and get some work done for my stuff.

I restarted my Pokemon Leaf Green game (which wasn't very developed anyways) because I desired Misdreaveus. I'm walking through the tunnel before Lavender Town—and it's damned annoying, since I can't see where I go. UGH.

I'm also hoping that my Oral Spanish Presentation went well… "Hola! Que desea usted? Una camiseta? Si! Necesita en de color verde, y usa la talla veinte? Bien! No, paga en la caja, no aqui! Gracias!" Eck. And I always get paired with the worst of partners.

My god, I was having a fit when I was talking to my mom about, "OMFG, I'm gonna be **14** next year… 14… 14…" Ugh, now I feel senile, since I can't remember yesterday for my life. Tomorrow I'll have to tattoo my name into my arm or something, 'cause I'll forget that… and become a PSYCHO KILLER. :(

Poor Layla-chan's been sick! She sounds like she's getting better though! I better run off now and finish my chores... Heh.


	16. IMPORTANT!

Hello! I'm back, and I'm going to explain what happened. Well, I was riding the school bus home, and when we arrived at my stop, I got off. The bus driver put out that blinking red stop sign so that I could cross the street to get home. I was crossing the street when I heard a scream, then a screech of tires. I can't really remember much after that, but for the sensation of flying...and I think a bit of pain. Well anyways, I woke up and man, did my head hurt. Everything was really blurry, and all I could see was white. I was in the hospital. I later learned that when I was crossing the street, and a Volvo that ignored the stop sign rammed into me. My body apparently went flying because of how light I am, and I slammed onto the back of another car that had stopped for a red light. That was the only reason that I didn't brake my neck or back because it slightly cushioned me. Luckily, nothing is fatal or permanent. I'm really glad to be alive. My injuries...

I only have a broken right arm, two fractured wrists, fractured right leg, fractured right ankle sprained left ankle, a few broken ribs, a punctured kidney, scars (none on my face, thank god), and a whole army of bruises. Nothing major...yeah, who am I kidding.

I also have one last...eh...injury, but I'll tell you that later.

Because I'm so sorry about not updating in so long, I wrote a another story called Frozen Land as an apology. Thank you so much for the support and the reviews.

-Layla


	17. Bad News

Hello! This is Layla's friend Emily again. And once again, I have very bad news. At the moment, I'm the one taking care of all of Layla's online work, like Email and Fanfiction because she's in the hosptial and going through rough times. Layla has cancer, which was discovered after her accident, for this reason, Layla can not leave strain herself, and is usually in the hospital. She's asked me to tell all her readers that she is very sorry, but updating will be impossible for awhile. So all her stories are on hiatus until further notice. I'm sorry that I had to be the bringer of bad news once again. At the moment, I'm going through fanfiction and finding stories that she may be intrested in reading later on when she feels better, I would love for some inspiration from everyone because I'm pretty much a newbie on this site. Thank you.

-Emily


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